With a trade war with the United States ramping up and protectionism increasing in some developing country markets, Chinese tilapia firms are exhibiting an increased urgency to find and expand markets nearer to home.
Chinese media is reporting that both Iraq and Bangladesh – both promising markets for Chinese exporters – have banned the import of frozen fish products in order to protect their domestic producers. In addition Nigeria – another key growth market for Chinese tilapia – announced it will bar imports of frozen tilapia filets last summer, but still hasn’t elaborated whether the ban includes processed products.
The closure of several foreign markets has encouraged Chinese processors to look inwards towards China’s own market for possible expansion. Getting product onto local shop shelves is proving an opportunity for local canners, who cater to mass-market consumers. In a special offer marketed on its online store recently, Hubei Huanle Jia Food Co. sold 138-gram cans of pre-cooked, black bean- flavored tilapia at a knockdown price of CNY 39.90 (USD 6.34, EUR 5.17) for 10 cans. Headquartered in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, Huanle Jia has a processing factory in the southern city of Zhanjiang, in the center of the tilapia and shrimp production belt.
Another tilapia player, Zhongshan Bao Li Food Products Co., is selling three 184-gram cans of precooked, flavored tilapia normally priced at CNY 88.70 (USD 14.06, EUR 11.50) per 500 grams, at CNY 29.90 (USD 4.74, EUR 3.87) in a special offer on online retailer Tmall.com. The firm also cans mud carp as part of its “Giggling Little Pig” range of canned products. Zhongshan Bao ships from the Yangjiang area of Guangdong Province, another tilapia farming hotspot, within convenient distance of the country’s key ports of Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
Meanwhile, a canner based in the heart of China’s tilapia aquaculture scene is seeking to take Western markets by storm with canned carp and tilapia. Guangdong Haibao Canned Food Co. recently introduced those products under its "Yu Jia Xiang" branded range. The range also includes dace fish with salted black beans, canned eel, anchovies, sardines, and tuna. Haibao exhibited at the Cologne Food Fair in Germany this winter and will show at several industry fairs in Asia this year, according to company managing director Huang Youwen.
Huang told local media in the company’s home base of Maoming in Guangdong Province that the firm already exports canned fish to customers in Africa and the Middle East but wants to double its revenues in 2018 on the back of bigger orders from Western buyers. The company is currently testing European demand for its new canned tilapia, he said.
“We are a research-focused firm,” he said. “We can cater to changing tastes.”
