Ocean aquaculture and overseas catches are proving key to the stability of prices in one of China’s key fisheries regions.
Zhejiang Province reported its total seafood production was 6.12 million metric tons (MT), up by three percent year-on-year. Domestic water catches, however, fell 6.9 percent to 2.8 million MT. Yet average seafood prices were steady, rising by 2.1 percent year-on-year, similar to the increase last year, according to the data from the provincial agriculture office.
The growth in supply appears to be coming from seawater aquaculture amounted to 1.32 million MT – up 14.2 percent – while freshwater totaled 1.17 million MT, up 5.7 percent. Distant-water catches rose by 30.9 percent to 610,000 MT. This data suggests slightly higher distant-water catches than the figures in data compiled by Zhoushan city, the key fishing port in the province.
The province’s 44 distant-water fishing companies together upped their catch 6.3 percent in volume terms to 526,000 MT, while increasing it five percent in value terms to CNY 6.3 billion (USD 933.9 million, EUR 816.7 million). The percentage of the catch brought back to Zhejiang, at 463,000 MT, was up 5.4 percent on the 2017 figure.
Zhejiang’s data largely aligns with broader trends towards a squeeze in freshwater aquaculture and domestic water supply due to China’s newly intensive enforcement of environmental laws.
