Tilapia is one of the few seafood categories in which Chinese exporters are losing value.
Exports of tilapia, which constituted 6.7 percent of China’s overall seafood exports in value in the first quarter of 2018, rose by 1.3 percent in tonnage (to a total of 81,900 tons) but fell in value terms by 1.6 percent to USD 247 million (EUR 209.6 million).
When the latest figures are compared to data for the first quarter of 2017, tilapia’s role in China’s seafood exports appears to be in decline. Tilapia accounted for 7.2 percent of all of China’s seafood exports in value terms in the first three months of 2017, with shipments rising 6.6 percent in volume over 2016 to 80,800 tons. Those shipments were worth USD 252 million (EUR 213.8 million), up 4.7 percent from 2016 year-on-year.
China’s key tilapia exporter, Baiyang, has in recent years diversified away from seafood into online education activities.
