There are continued signs of price increases in Chinese seafood markets due to the ongoing ban on fishing in domestic waters, as well as a harsh crackdown on aquaculture located in environmentally sensitive areas.
The increase in value of seafood sold in June was almost double the increase in volume at the central seafood wholesale market in the coastal city of Weihai, normally a bellwether for East Coast prices in China.
Value of sales rose 2.3 percent to CNY 49.8 million (USD 7.2 million, EUR 6.2 million), while volume grew 1.7 percent to 48,130 tons. A statement from the market announcing the prices pointed to the wholesale seizure and destruction of aquaculture facilities in Hunan province – a major center of the freshwater aquaculture production – as a price driver.
China’s national media has been running propaganda-type photos this week of environmental enforcement officers and police using wire cutters to destroy aquaculture cages, while TV news showed footage of unlicensed fishing vessels being broken up with a mechanical digger.
Perhaps because of this new tough approach on aquaculture, shellfish prices have risen, and were up 14.2 percent year-on-year in Weihai last month. The “World Cup effect,” meanwhile, was credited for pushing average prices for crayfish by 20 percent in the city of Hengyang (Hunan) province in July, according to wholesale market management in the city.
