Price inflation for seafood and other food products in China continues to out-score inflation rates in Europe and the United States.
Data from China’s ministries of agriculture and commerce show significant price growth this year for key fish species. Yellow croaker, for instance, went from CNY 38 per kg (USD 5.67, EUR 5.13) on 15 January to CNY 41 per kg (USD 6.13, EUR 5.53) on 5 February (during the traditional Chinese New Year rush period) to CNY 42.50 per kg (USD 6.35, EUR 5.74) on 24 June. Meanwhile, prices for hair tail (or ribbon fish) over the same timeframe climbed from CNY 32 (USD 4.78, EUR 4.32) to CNY 33.50 (USD 5.01, EUR 4.52) and on to CNY 34.50 (USD 5.16, EUR 4.66) per kilo as of 24 June.
These prices will be of keen interest to exporters shipping fish –including alternative species – to make up for continued shortage of supply due to China’s summer-long fishing bans on its own territorial waters.
Fish prices for 2016 should be seen against the context of China’s consumer price index, which rose two percent in May year-on-year but dropped 0.5 percent on a month-by-month basis. By contrast, the Eurozone inflation rate was negative 0.1 percent in May, with 1.1 percent recorded for the U.S. –both figures are on a year-on-year basis.
China’s CPI rose 2.3 percent in the first three months on a year-on-year basis. Overall food prices rose 5.9 percent, helped by soaring prices for pork – China’s protein meat of choice –which rose 33.6 percent in the first three months compared to the same period last year due to ongoing shortage of supply.
