The local government in a city on China’s border with Russia has announced plans to build a seafood processing hub after it received a full license from the national inspection authorities to do full customs inspection for seafood.
Suifenhe, which is located just across the river from the Russian city of Pogranichny, has been granted the permission by the Chinese government’s seafood quality agency, AQSIQ.
In a statement from Gong Jianbo, head of the government commerce department, the company said it now plans to its permit and its proximity to the large port city of Vladivostok, Russia, to process and ship seafood. Suifenhe, Gong pointed out, is alone among Chinese border cities permitted to conduct trade in the Russian rouble and is “only a few hours road from Vladivostok, which is a major fishing port as well as a sea port with good connections to Japan and Korea.”
Suifenhe has in recent years become best known as a shopping destination for Siberians, as well as a hub for the smuggling of Siberian timber into China.
The AQSIQ has in recent years started to grant customs control powers to smaller regional cities – eager to get the customs revenues - in order to increase China’s access to imported food commodities, which the country is buying in ever greater bulk as its consumption rises.
