A Chinese logistics firm has begun vacuum-packing sea bass from its giant farm in southern China, with an eye toward entering both the domestic and export markets.
The development is another sign of a shift among Chinese seafood companies from a focus on lower-priced to premium species.
“The meat quality is far higher than that of tilapia, this is a premium species and we think it can have huge appeal across Asia and America to people who like Chinese cuisine,” Liao Xiaoyuan, commercial director at Zhuhai CHF Agricultural, told SeafoodSource at the 2018 Seafood Expo Asia.
Well-resourced with a large presence at this year’s expo, her firm is part of the larger QiangJing Agricultural Group.
Qiangjing name is a familiar one across southern China, thanks to its fleet of refrigerated trucks ferrying perishables around the country. The company farms bass as well as snakehead fish in more than 600 hectares of pond space in the Doumen region of Zhuhai, the mainland city bordering the gambling mecca of Macau.
A geographical indicator awarded by local government (designating its fish as from Doumen) has been a useful marketing tool, Liao explained. Her company is also well-connected; among recent visitors to inspect the aquaculture and processing facilities was Yu Kangzhen, China’s minister for agriculture.
