There are clear signs that a tightening local supply of wild-caught fish is driving up prices and demand in China for species to replace local favorites like croaker, pomfret and flounder.
A shortage of fish in the East China Sea has worsened, according to officials at the Zhejiang Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Association (ZAPPMA), a trade body representing seafood producers in Zhejiang province. “We don’t have the supply and consumers are having to adjust to frozen and even farmed fish in place of fish caught in the wild by local fishermen,” said the official.
Prices for fish were up strongly this month at Zhoushan seafood wholesale market, one of the largest in Zhejiang, with buyers driving two hours from Shanghai to purchase from vendors. Fresh flat fish sold for an average CNY 48 (USD 7.68, EUR 7.20) per kilogram (kg) on 15 April, up 9 percent on the previous month, according to data from the market’s administrators supplied through ZAPPMA. Flounder prices at CNY 80 (USD12.8, EUR12) per kg were up 29 percent while pomfret rose 18 percent on the previous month to CNY 200 (USD 32, EUR 30) per kg.
Average prices for yellow croaker were up 20 percent on March prices, according to the wholesaler, who expressed gloom over the expected local catch as a dampener on prices. “The past year a lot of local boats have remained at port because it’s not worth them going out to sea, there’s nothing worth catching…” There are expectations that government will extend the annual summer moratorium on fishing from three months to four, added the trader.
With local supplies down, imports are also rising. Supplies of croakers from Pakistan and India are both increasing while supplies of butterfish and hairtail are also increasing from Latin America and Southeast Asia. China is also keen to buy saury. The opening up of inland airports and waterway ports means more markets for lower-cost imported fish species, notes an official at the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) in Ningbo, an important port near Zhoushan.
According to the AQSIQ official: “Previously a small number of major ports in China were allowed to accept and process seafood imports but now this has greatly increased as local governments have lobbied to be allowed take imports directly…it offers them a source of [customs duty] revenue while also helping to keep the prices of some key food products down [through cheaper imports]…but this also means more competition for resources and maybe higher prices for imported fish.”
The demand for imported fish as replacement species for depleted local stocks is also driven by weather: Prices for freshwater fish have also increased due to a severe drought in Shandong province that has forced many smaller-scale aquaculture producers to cease production. A key province for seafood production and processing, Shandong has seen prices for carp, croaker and perch rise significantly over the past two months as the drought lingers, according to traders at the huge seafood market in Weihai, a key wholesale trading point in Shandong. Prices for eight finfish species — including croaker, carp and pomfret — rose in excess of 6 percent on March prices according to the market’s office of weights and prices, in a monthly data-grab provided to SeafoodSource.
Fresh fish continues to command a premium, meaning frozen imports trade at a discount of up to 20 percent, according to Chen Yuanyuan, a trader at the Weihai market who is also purchasing imported croaker from suppliers in Karachi. “I think the price difference will narrow because we will have no choice but to increase imports to maintain supply for local consumption,” she added.
While China remains keen to increase access to imported seafood (and other foods) as a means of controlling price inflation at home, some of the urgency has dissipated at the central government level as China’s economy has slowed. Inflation in March at 1.4 percent was well below the government ceiling target of 3.5 percent. However the challenges of falling local supply will likely ensure demand for imported fish species will continue to grow.
