Saving Seafood

Maine delegates decry ‘broken promise’ in China lobster-buying deal

February 22, 2022 — All four members of Maine’s congressional delegation want the Biden administration to hold China accountable for its apparent failure to live up to a 2020 trade deal.

In a letter sent Thursday to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, Sen. Angus King and Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden said China has broken its promise to buy more Maine lobster. They also requested details on exactly how much lobster China agreed to buy under the trade deal, which was negotiated and signed during the Trump administration. Sen. Susan Collins sent Tai a similar letter Wednesday.

Recent analyses indicate that China has failed to buy all of the additional $200 million in U.S. goods that trade officials said the country committed to in the “Phase One Deal” unveiled in early 2020. An analysis by Bloomberg released last month said China had only purchased 63 percent of the U.S. goods it had agreed to buy as part of an effort to reduce the trade deficit between the two countries.

In their letter, King, Pingree and Golden said China has bought “almost no lobster above 2017 levels” and said U.S. officials need to take action to make sure the additional purchases spelled out in the agreement take place.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

China promoting consumption of distant-water catch to tame inflation, conserve local fisheries

February 2, 2022 — Government officials and executives from China’s distant-water fishing sector are teaming up to promote increased consumption of the distant-water catch in interior regions of the country as a way of taming price inflation and conserving local fisheries.

Officials from China’s Ministry of Agriculture joined members of China’s Distant-Water Fishing Association in Chongqing recently for the “Promoting Ocean Seafood Inland” roadshow, which since September 2021 has also included stops in Changsha, Wuhan, Hefei, and Xi’an. The events have taken place in luxury hotels in the inland cities and have featured seafood exhibits and cooking demonstrations.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Growing BAP hoping to expand in China, riding coattails of growing US soy imports

January 31, 2022 — Eighteen years after a shrimp farm in Belize became the first Best Aquaculture Practices-certified facility, the program continues to grow at a healthy rate and is eyeing expansion into China.

The Global Seafood Alliance’s BAP third-party certification program grew 8.6 percent in 2021, ending the year with 3,169 BAP-certified facilities in six continents and 39 countries, up from 2,918 BAP-certified facilities at the end of 2020, according to the organization.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

China protests IOTC yellowfin tuna allocation limits for 2022

January 25, 2022 — Despite the People’s Republic of China maintaining that mainland China and Taiwan are parts of “One China” whose sovereignty cannot be divided, the world’s second-largest economy appears reluctant to entertain such perceptions when it comes to the management of fisheries for both entities.

The country’s delegation to the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) has disagreed with the commission’s 10,557 metric ton (MT) yellowfin tuna catch-limit for 2022, saying the figure is below the 15,339 MT it expected. The higher quota is based on catch limits being calculated separately for mainland China and Taiwan.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Southeast Asia attracting seafood processing away from China

January 21, 2022 — As China’s economy continues to evolve and its trade relationship with the U.S. remains strained, it is likely other countries in Southeast Asia will take a larger role in processing seafood, according to a panel of experts at the National Fisheries Institute’s Global Seafood Market Conference.

Trade relations between the U.S. and China became suddenly more volatile when the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump implemented tariffs on Chinese goods. Trump’s stated goal was to put an end to the significant trade imbalance between the two countries – an imbalance that U.S.-China Business Council President Craig Allen said was nothing new.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

China’s difficulties a potential boon for US seafood processors

December 16, 2021 — Mounting difficulties in bringing seafood processed in China into the United States has created an opportunity for U.S. processors, including Portland, Maine-based Bristol Seafood.

China’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed China’s seafood-processing sector’s production, and related logistical and transportation issues have impeded delivery of their products to the U.S. Those issues, along with the continued imposition of U.S. tariffs as high as 25 percent on seafood imported from China, have made China a less-attractive option for processing for U.S. seafood buyers, according to Bristol Seafood CEO Peter Handy.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

China’s seafood production, consumption continue to grow

December 9, 2021 — China’s seafood production will total 65.7 million metric tons (MT) in 2021, and will increase to 66.1 million MT in 2022, according to a Chinese research consultancy.

China’s overall seafood output rose from 64.5 million MT in 2017 to 65.4 million MT in 2020, according to Zhong Shang Chan Ye Research Agency, which also trades as China Commerce and Industry Research and Ask CI Consulting.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

The U.S. Has a Leading Role to Play in Reducing Ocean Plastic

December 6, 2021 — Plastic waste of all shapes and sizes permeates the world’s oceans. It shows up on beaches, in fish and even in Arctic sea ice. And a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine makes clear that the U.S. is a big part of the problem.

As the report shows, the U.S. produces a large share of the global supply of plastic resin – the precursor material to all plastic industrial and consumer products. It also imports and exports billions of dollars’ worth of plastic products every year.

On a per capita basis, the U.S. produces an order of magnitude more plastic waste than China – a nation often vilified over pollution-related issues. These findings build off a study published in 2020 that concluded that the U.S. is the largest global source of plastic waste, including plastics shipped to other countries that later are mismanaged.

And only a small fraction of plastic in U.S. household waste streams is recycled. The study calls current U.S. recycling systems “grossly insufficient to manage the diversity, complexity and quantity of plastic waste.”

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

China blocks US forced labor proposal at WTO fishery subsidies talks

November 19, 2021 — China has refused to endorse a U.S. demand for annual inspections of fleets for use of forced labor to be included in a World Trade Organization accord on curbing illegal fishing subsidies.

China said the WTO has no mandate for tackling the labor issue in the agreement. The topic of forced labor was introduced to the talks only recently by the U.S. delegation in response to increased emphasis on the issue in Washington D.C.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Chinese vessels accused by EJF of IUU fishing, labor transgressions in Somali waters

November 2, 2021 — A new investigation has exposed how China is defying international law to carry out illegal fishing operations in Somali water, while subjecting foreign crew to mistreatment.

A new Environmental Justice Foundation report claims six Chinese fishing vessels entered Somali waters without permission and used prohibited fishing gear, such as trawl nets, in fishing zones that have been reserved for Somali fishing communities.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource