August 23, 2021 — China’s seafood importers could be looking at price rises due to port congestion and higher freight costs, according to a Siam Canadian executive.
Most Chinese processors are renegotiating their contracted prices due to rising costs for raw materials and freight, according to Landy Chow, the general manager of Bangkok, Thailand-based seafood trader Siam Canadian Group’s Guangzhou office.
August 18, 2021 — The following was released by the Convention on Biological Diversity:
Decisive in-person meetings on a highly-anticipated new UN agreement on biodiversity have been paused for a few more months by the coronavirus pandemic.
Host country China and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) today announced dates for the UN Biodiversity Conference, which includes the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-15), www.cbd.int/meetings/COP-15, to be convened in two parts, the 10th meeting of Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CP-MOP 10) and the 4th meeting of Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (NP-MOP 4).
From Monday 11 to Friday 15 October 2021, an official opening will take place online, followed by final negotiations on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework during face-to-face meetings in Kunming, China, Monday 25 April to Sunday 8 May 2022.
The opening meeting will address agenda items essential to the continued operations of the biodiversity convention and its two Protocols. It will also include a High-Level Segment to be held on 12 and 13 October and expected to produce a Kunming Declaration adding political momentum to the Framework negotiations.
August 11, 2021 — Argentina’s government is working with China as a strategic technology partner to develop its domestic aquaculture sector.
Argentina’s national director of aquaculture, Guillermo Abdala, estimated aquaculture could generate revenue of at least USD 1.8 billion (EUR 1.5 billion) annually for the South American nation.
August 5, 2021 — Early morning in Honolulu, yellowfin, bigeye and other types of tuna, along with swordfish, are put up for auction after being offloaded from ships overnight. Longline boats, 145 of them, operate from this port, trailing kilometers-long baited lines. These vessels mostly fish in international waters at least 400 kilometers offshore, alongside boats from Taiwan, China, Japan and South Korea. Wholesale buyers compete for the catch in an early morning auction, and a single high-quality tuna can fetch from several hundred dollars to more than $1,000.
Confrontations are rare on the high seas near Hawaii, where the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command is based and the U.S. Coast Guard maintains a strong presence.
But fisherman here have watched with concern as Chinese fishing vessels intimidate Philippine fisherman in waters that China claims in the South China Sea.
U.S. fishing vessels, on the other hand, face more scrutiny than the Chinese ships. They are closely monitored under U.S. domestic law, says Eric Kingma, executive director of the Hawaii Longline Association, which represents local fishermen.
“We have independent observer coverage levels of at least 20% in our tuna fishery, whereas China barely scratches (reaches) 5%. And we have a whole suite of environmental laws, statutes and regulations,” he said.
July 27, 2021 — There are signs that China’s economy is cooling, as economic data for the second quarter of 2021 showed China’s GDP growth slowed due to slower state-led investment and weaker consumption growth. China’s exports in Q2 2021 rose 20 percent, but higher prices for oil and other imports are eroding China’s strong trade balance.
Meanwhile, seafood prices are soaring across the country. Wholesale prices for freshwater seafood surged 20 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2021 in China, according to data published by the National Bureau of Statistics. The climb in prices is 13.1 percentage points higher than the rise seen in the first half of 2020 and has added 0.12 to China’s overall consumer price index (CPI). The overall seafood price index was up 17.2 percent in the first six months, suggesting tightened supply.
July 20, 2021 — The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:
The National Fisheries Institute’s Red Crab Council and its partners – Ocean Outcomes (O2) and Tao Ran on the ground in China – have renewed their annual contract to keep the comprehensive Red Crab Fisheries Improvement Project (FIP) on track.
“For a number of years the Red Crab fishery has faced adversity from things like the pandemic, the market and tariffs,” said Newport International President Anjan Tharakan, the NFI Red Crab Council Chair. “But none of the companies we partner with, and certainly not O2 nor Tao Ran, have lost sight of the importance of working hard towards the most sustainable fishery possible. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. If nothing, this is one committed group.”
The FIP is focused on improving crab production in Fujian Province, the leading harvesting region in China for red crab.
The NFI Red Crab Council funds the work by assessing a fee on its members based on the number of pounds they import each quarter.
“Despite all the external challenges this FIP has faced, we’ve never changed our ultimate objectives,” said O2 Founder and CEO Rich Lincoln. “We have dedicated companies supporting the work and experts on the ground executing it. Continuing this contract keeps us on track to seeing the best science-based strategies driving Red Crab fisheries management in the Fujian region”
The status of the Fujian Zhangzhou Red Crab FIP is updated biannually on fisheryprogress.org.
July 14, 2021 — China’s domestic aquaculture sector is shifting its production focus to a later harvest in order to supply rising demand from within the country, according to a leading Chinese supplier of fishmeal and fish oil.
A fishmeal trader with an IFFO-certified fish oil refining plant, Fujian High Fortune Bio-Tech Group also has a GMP plant for omega-3 related products and healthcare industry production. Its clients are in the human consumption and health care industries, in addition to animal and aquafeed production and the pet food industry.
July 12, 2021 — The fishermen along the western coast of Luzon Island, in the Philippines, have known for generations that the seas, the tides and the weather can determine their fortunes. More recently, they have added China to that list.
Scarborough Shoal, a nearby triangular chain of reefs and rocks in the South China Sea, was once the source of bountiful catches of large reef fish. But the fishermen are no longer allowed to go near it.
“The Chinese have already swallowed Karburo whole, but that area is really ours,” said Johnny Sonny Geruela, using the Filipino name for Scarborough. Mr. Geruela lives in Masinloc, a small fishing community just 124 nautical miles from the shoal.
China’s Coast Guard has had ships anchored near Scarborough for almost a decade. Five years ago this week, an international court ruled that the territory was well within Manila’s exclusive economic zone, and invalidated China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea. Beijing has effectively ignored the ruling and expanded its presence in the region.
Filipino fishermen like Mr. Geruela now avoid the shoal, where they once sheltered during storms, exchanged greetings and cigarettes, and harvested the abundant reef fish. And the lessons of Scarborough are playing out elsewhere in the South China Sea, as China continues to flex its muscle on the water and pursue power through a campaign of steady provocation.
July 7, 2021 — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is seeking to increase its imprint on the Chinese retail scene with the introduction of a strategy document at a recent meeting of retailers in the country’s south.
The MSC Sustainable Seafood Procurement Strategy 2021 was launched at the recent annual purchasers summit organized by the China Chain Store and Franchise Association (CCFA) in Guizhou with a range of seafood import companies present to court retailers with MSC-certified products.
June 29, 2021 — China has announced a temporary ban on its fishing fleet — the world’s biggest — from catching squid in parts of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans after overfishing pushed populations to the brink of collapse.
China reels in as much as 70 percent of the global squid catch, and its vessels sail as far as West Africa and Latin America to sate the growing appetite for seafood in the country.
But Chinese vessels will suspend operations in major global squid spawning grounds in the southwest Atlantic near Argentina from Thursday until September 30, and parts of the Pacific from September to November, the agriculture ministry said Monday.
The ban follows an international backlash against China’s giant overseas fleet, with claims that they are overfishing and damaging fragile marine ecosystems.
Areas covered by the moratorium are breeding grounds for two of the most popular squid varieties — the Argentine shortfin squid and the Humboldt squid.
Populations of the Argentine shortfin have been low in recent years, with the average catch by Chinese vessels in the southwest Atlantic only 50 tonnes in 2019 compared with up to 2,000 tonnes previously, according to the China squid fishing association.