The rising price of China’s currency is hurting the country’s fisheries exports.
China’s currency, the yuan, is up 3.6 percent against the U.S. dollar so far in 2018, and has gained more than 10 percent against the dollar since January 2017.
That’s not great news for the country’s seafood export sector, which saw exports fall 2.3 percent in volume, to 965,000 metric tons in the first three months of 2018. Exporters are further feeling the financial squeeze since they bill in dollars and then exchange them back into yuan in China.
The news wasn’t all bad for the sector – the total value of Chinese seafood exports rose 6.3 percent to USD 4.7 billion (EUR 3.8 million). The shift suggests Chinese exports are growing faster in value than volume and signals that exporters are increasing prices.
Seafood has thus far not been directly involved in the escalating tariff war between China and the United States, but China has been accused by the Trump administration of manipulating its currency to make its exports more competitive. While historically that may have been true, in recent months, Beijing has deliberately acted to appreciate the value of the yuan.
