Seafood consumption in China dwarfs that of any other region and with more growth projected for the years ahead, its global seafood market share will only increase, claims a new report from Rabobank.
“China’s Changing Tides – Shifting Consumption and Trade Position of Chinese Seafood” states that currently, China’s seafood consumption makes up 37 percent of global seafood consumption, which in volume terms is almost seven times higher than consumption in the whole of North America. Moreover, in the last decade, the country’s aquatic product consumption has increased by almost 50 percent to reach 62 million metric tons (MT), which contributed to 65 percent of the global increase in seafood consumption.
Compiled by Gorjan Nikolik, Beyhan de Jong and Chenjun Pan for RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness, the report forecasts that in the next decade, 53 percent of the increase in total aquatic product consumption will be due to China. It also predicts that the country’s seafood consumption will rise from its present level of 44kg per capita to 50kg by 2026.
Seafood consumption is traditionally concentrated in the urban areas of China’s south and southeastern coastal regions, but with increasing urbanization, the development of e-commerce and cold chain infrastructure improvements, seafood consumption is constantly increasing.
Furthermore, while freshwater fish, including carp species, is the most consumed type of seafood, followed by mollusks, the consumption pattern is changing, whereby consumers are developing an interest for the more premium and imported seafood species.
Despite strong domestic consumption and relatively low resources, China is currently more than fully self-sufficient in seafood, said Rabobank. It is a net seafood exporter with USD 20 billion (EUR 16.7 billion) worth of exports annually offsetting USD 8.5 billion (EUR 7.1 billion) worth of imports.
One of the main contributors to the country’s export trade is its re-processing industry, which is based on imports of whole fish such as pollock and salmon from the likes of United States, Russia and Norway and then exporting frozen fillets and other seafood products. There are also a number of domestic aquaculture sectors, such as shrimp, crawfish, tilapia, catfish and scallops as well as a tuna export sector based on China’s large long distance fleet operating in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
However, Rabobank expects that this large net trade surplus will reduce due to supply constraints and increased demand.
“Chinese-produced seafood is becoming less competitive versus seafood from other regions, both in the Chinese domestic market and in key export markets,” states the report. “A simultaneous reduction in imports is likely to erode the currently positive net trade position.”
Russia and the United States are the two top countries supplying 32 percent of China’s total seafood imports, but China is increasing its imports from a broader range of countries. In addition, fishmeal imports account for 25 percent of all imports into China. Mainly sourced from Peru, this fishmeal goes to support Chinese aquaculture.
Showing the most growth, though, are imports of high-value products such as shellfish and wild marine fish, which all go directly for domestic production. Crustacean imports grew by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23 percent between 2005 and 2015, while in the same period, whitefish and pelagic imports grew by around 4 percent.
