Demand for crustaceans is strong in China this month as local shrimp supply enters peak season and consumers switch from white fish due to a moratorium on fishing in the country’s main seas.
Shrimp prices weakened as there’s been a rush of supply onto the market due to a sell-off by producers worried about potential outbreaks of disease. A wholesaler at the Dongfang Seafood Market in Shanghai (one of China’s three biggest seafood markets) quoted average domestic shrimp wholesale prices of CNY 40 per kilogram (kg) to RMB 55 per kg (USD 6.44 to 8.86, EUR 4.74 to 6.51), down 10 to 15 percent from last year.
The wholesaler explained how prices softened in June and July this year with farm gate prices for 40-count shrimp at RMB 19 per kg (USD 3, EUR 2.25) in southerly Guangxi and Hainan provinces, his two main supply bases. “This is about 10 percent less than I was paying this time last year,” explained the trader, who sells the shrimp live in Shanghai.
At the Jingshen market in Beijing (another of the country’s big three wholesale markets) vendors reported strong demand for larger sized shrimp from the catering trade as hot weather brings out diners. Shrimp imported from Malaysia and Thailand is selling for RMB 300 per kg (USD 48.35, EUR 35.56) while domestic shrimp from Guangxi and Hainan is selling for RMB 30 per kg to RMB 70 (USD 4.83 to 11.28, EUR 3.55 to 8.29) for larger shrimp.
“Right now there’s a lot of domestic supply entering the market so prices are fairly flat but there’s always a premium on imported shrimp,” noted a Jingshen Market-based salesman for one of Beijing’s largest importers of crustaceans.
The Jingshen importer/trader is charging RMB 364 per kg (USD 59, EUR 43) for four pieces of Indonesian shrimp and RMB 132 per kg (USD 21, EUR 16) for 16- to 20-count pieces. Vendors at Weihai and Beijing are reporting far more intense supervision from China’s national quarantine inspection agency, AQSIQ, so supplies of imports have tightened, which is also helping drive prices upwards.
Imported lobsters remain in demand at the Jingshen market, with Australian lobsters sized 1 kg and above are making on average RMB 700 per kg (USD 112, EUR 82.97) with smaller-sized lobsters selling for RMB 650 per kg (USD 104.77, EUR 77).
“Summer is a peak consumption period for lobster and we’re getting a lot of buyers from catering companies and online sellers coming to us for extra supply,” said the Jingshen importer/trader.
He noted that South African lobsters are cheaper, at RMB 300 per kg (USD 48.35, EUR 35.55), “largely because they’re smaller and they don’t have the reputation and pricing power of Australian lobster which is seen as premium product.” He added medium-sized mud crabs from Indonesia, Vietnam and Pakistan are fetching RMB 260 to 360 per kg (USD 41 to 58, EUR 30.80 to 42.66). That’s comparable to prices for female freshwater crabs from Jiangsu province currently entering the market.
Despite worries over the broader economy here, the omens for China’s seafood prices look good. Average prices for aquatic products rose 4 percent year-on-year in June, according to the national statistics bureau. That figure is faster than all other food products other than fruit and beats the China's consumer-price index that rose 2.3 percent in June from a year earlier.
A growing acceptance of frozen seafood is gradually underway in China, as ever more prosperous consumers face shortages of fresh product every summer during the fishing moratorium. The trader in the Dongfang market in Shanghai notes: “In recent years aquaculture and processing has really adapted to take advantage of the fishing moratorium, so there’s a lot more cold chain warehousing capacity to store up stocks and many of the big wholesale markets have big stocks of imported and domestic fish and crabs to hand for sale during the summer months...they’re betting that consumers are now adapted to eating frozen seafood.”
