Saving Seafood

The Facts About Seafood, COVID, and Chinese Food Markets

June 17, 2020 — The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:

On 13 June, Chinese media began reporting on the closure of the Xinfadi food markets in Beijing due the presence of COVID-19.

Do not be misled by sensational reports.  The facts are clear.  And these are the facts about food according to academic experts and global public health officials and agencies:

Former Commissioner of US Food and Drug Administration states:  “The idea it hitched a ride on fish is highly implausible.  I mean it is absurd.  I can’t see any plausible scenario where this virus rode in on a salmon.”

The World Health Organization states:  “As food has not been implicated in the transmission of COVID-19, testing of food or food surfaces for this virus is not recommended.”

The Codex Alimentarius states:  “COVID-19 is a respiratory illness primarily transmitted through person-to-person contact and direct contact with respiratory droplets generated when an infected person coughs or sneezes.  There is no evidence to date of viruses that cause respiratory illnesses being transmitted via food or food packaging.  Coronaviruses cannot multiply in food; they need an animal or human host to multiply. It is highly unlikely that people can contract COVID-19 from food or food packaging.”

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations states: “Despite the hypothesis that the virus may have originated in bats and infected another animal used for food, there is no evidence of continued transmission of the virus from animals to humans through the food chain.”

The US Food and Drug Administration states: “…. there is no evidence that food or food packaging have been associated with transmission (of COVID-19) and no reason to be concerned.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states:  “In general, because of poor survivability of these coronaviruses on surfaces, there is likely very low risk of spread from food products or packaging..”

Canadian Food Inspection Agency states:  “Scientists and food safety authorities around the world are closely monitoring the spread of COVID-19.  There are currently no reported cases of COVID-19 being spread through food.”

The Norwegian Food Safety Agency states:  “There are no known cases of infection via contaminated food, imported food or water.  Therefore, fish and seafood products from Norway are safe to eat” and “Currently there are no known cases of infection via contaminated food, imported food or water.  Based on current knowledge of coronaviruses, infection via food and water is considered unlikely.”

The European Food Safety Authority states:  “Experiences from previous outbreaks of related coronaviruses, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), show that transmission through food consumption did not occur.  At the moment, there is no evidence to suggest that coronavirus is any different in this respect.”

The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment states: “There are currently no cases which have shown evidence of humans being infected with the new type of coronavirus via the consumption of contaminated food.  There is also currently no reliable evidence of transmission of the virus via contact with contaminated objects or contaminated surfaces, which would have led to subsequent human infections.”

The Chilean National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service states:  “There is no evidence to suggest that SARS-CoV-2 can infect aquatic animals and, therefore, these animals do not play an epidemiological role in spreading COVID-19 to humans.”

University College London researchers state:  “SARS-CoV-2 can infect a broad range of mammals, but few fish, birds or reptiles” and that “most [fish] have no susceptibility to infection.”

Asian Fisheries Science journal states:  “Currently, there is no evidence to suggest that SARS-CoV-2 can infect aquatic food animals (e.g. finfish, crustaceans, molluscs, amphibians) and therefore these animals do not play an epidemiological role in spreading COVID-19 to humans.”  (authors include 16 global public health researchers)

North Carolina State University researcher states:   “In fact, we don’t see evidence of any respiratory viruses being transmitted through food in the past.”  (COVID-19 is a respiratory virus) and “‘The good news with this particular virus is that it is not a foodborne virus.  Most of the food that we eat, ends up getting right into our gut and ends up encountering a whole bunch of acid in our stomachs.  And this virus particularly doesn’t really remain infectious once it hits the stomach.”

For more information about what global public health professionals say about seafood and COVID, visitCOVID-19 & Seafood website.

Chinese market undergoing drastic change through coronavirus crisis

June 11, 2020 — Market research consultancies have been working hard to assess the actionable lifestyle trends and developments emerging in China in the wake of its coronavirus lockdown.

Even as home-bound Chinese turn to convenience cooking and take-out – which even before the coronavirus had been a popular option in major Chinese cities – market research consultants interviewed by SeafoodSource seem divided on the extent of the opportunity for frozen and processed seafood products in the Chinese marketplace.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

China unlikely to consider lowering of lobster tariffs, despite Trump’s threat

June 11, 2020 — On Friday, 5 June, at a meeting with commercial lobstermen from the U.S. state of Maine, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on imported Chinese and European Union goods if they did not eliminate their tariffs on U.S. lobsters.

At the meeting, Trump appointed U.S. Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Director Peter Navarro the task of identifying additional Chinese and European products to hit with tariffs as a means of pressuring Beijing to eliminate all tariffs on American lobsters.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Food banks pushed to the brink

June 8, 2020 — The coronavirus pandemic and economic slowdown has left at least 20 million Americans out of work, sending demand skyrocketing at food banks and other feeding programs around the U.S. The Agriculture Department is already spending $3 billion on surplus meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables to help nonprofits meet their needs, but anti-hunger advocates say there’s another way Washington should help: Increase food stamp benefits so hungry families can buy more groceries instead of leaning on food banks.

The president on Friday threatened once again to slap duties on automobiles from the EU because of the bloc’s tariffs on U.S. lobsters. Trump said he’s putting Peter Navarro in charge of resolving the dispute, dubbing his hawkish trade adviser the “lobster king,” reports Pro Trade’s Doug Palmer.

The EU currently has an 8 percent tariff on live Maine lobsters, plus duties ranging from 16 percent to 20 percent on processed lobster. Meanwhile, Canada can export lobsters to Europe without paying any duties, leaving U.S. producers at a disadvantage.

“That’s an easy one to handle,” Trump said at a roundtable with commercial fishermen in Bangor, Maine, on Friday. But his administration has negotiated with Brussels for two years without reaching an agreement, and in November, the EU rejected a U.S. proposal for a mini-trade deal covering lobsters and chemicals.

China, another large market for lobster exports, also imposed retaliatory duties on American lobsters after Trump slapped tariffs on a wide range of Chinese goods. Trump on Friday directed Navarro to put pressure on Beijing by slapping even more tariffs on some Chinese goods.

Trump opened up a national marine monument in the North Atlantic to commercial fishing, undoing ecological protections implemented by the Obama administration. Under the proclamation, the New England Fishery Management Council will determine the amount of fishing allowed in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, some 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod, Mass. Pro Energy’s Ben Lefebvre and Eric Wolff have the details.

Read the full story at Politico

Trump to hold roundtable on commercial fishing while in Maine

June 4, 2020 — President Donald Trump will hold a roundtable discussion with parties involved in the commercial fishing industry during his visit to Maine on Friday, according to a White House official.

The president is slated to come to the Pine Tree State to visit the Puritan Medical Products facility in Guilford, which manufactures medical swabs used in coronavirus testing. The Guilford company is one of the two largest swab manufacturers in the world and is opening a new swab manufacturing facility in Pittsfield this summer to meet the surging demand for swabs.

The company is using $75.5 million in federal funds under the Defense Production Act to open that facility.

The president is expected to discuss regulations and how to expand economic opportunities for the commercial fishing industry, according to the official.

Details of when exactly the visit will take place have not been disclosed.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

China’s seafood industry asking for favors at National People’s Congress

June 3, 2020 — The ongoing annual meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s parliament, which began on 22 May, has been dominated by discussions on the impact of the coronavirus, which forced the postponement of the meeting from its original dates in March.

But within the corridors of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, where delegates meet once a year to rubber stamp laws drafted by the Communist Party, delegates from the fishing industry to the NPC were on the hunt for government backing for deals and carve-outs. Among them was Xia Yong Xiang, director of the Daishan Fishery Cooperative in Daishan, part of the massive east coast metropolis of Zhoushan, which has traditionally been China’s largest fishery port since the country started sending vessels to distant waters in the 1980s. Xia has been pushing for government subsidies to be refocused on Chinese vessels operating in the North Pacific and the Indian Ocean – which would help his firm, since many of its 600 vessels work those waters.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Collapse in Myanmar Seafood Exports Puts 1 Million Jobs At Risk

June 1, 2020 — About 1 million people may lose their jobs in Myanmar’s fisheries industry, with almost all exports ceasing since February as the spread of Covid-19 prompted major buyers, led by China and the U.S., to halt orders.

Processing plants wouldn’t have been able to deliver anyway, as factory closures were part of the government’s measures to stall the pandemic. Before the outbreak, the Myanmar Fisheries Federation forecast record exports of $1 billion this year, up about 40% from 2019. That’s been slashed to $350 million.

The fisheries sector employs about 3.5 million people in Myanmar, roughly 6% of the Southeast Asian nation’s workforce. In some coastal regions, one in three workers earns a living from seafood and marine products, according to a World Bank report in June 2019.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

US considering revocation of Hong Kong’s special trade status

May 29, 2020 — United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced on 27 May that the State Department is recommending the revocation of Hong Kong’s special status, which would eliminate special tariff exemptions to the region.

Hong Kong’s special status was created in 1997, five years before the United Kingdom handed control of Hong Kong over to China with special conditions. The status gives Hong Kong special trade and economic status benefits, and the region currently has a zero tariff rate on U.S. imports.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Chinese boat that dumped Indonesian crews at sea was also shark-finning: Reports

May 14, 2020 — Conservationists are calling for an investigation into alleged illegal fishing by a Chinese tuna company that kept Indonesian seamen as virtual slaves, leading to the deaths of four of them.

China’s Dalian Ocean Fishing Co. Ltd. has been under scrutiny after reports in early May linked four of its high-seas boats — Long Xing 629, Long Xing 802, Long Xing 605 and Tian Yu 08 — to the human rights abuses of its Indonesian crew members. Four Indonesians died between December 2019 and April 2020 due to the hazardous working conditions on board the boats. The bodies of three of them were dumped overboard for fear of infection, sparking a diplomatic outcry from Jakarta.

Migrant boat crews from Southeast Asia are seen as a source of cheap labor, making up a large proportion of Asia’s distant-water fleets. But deadly conditions await the workers aboard the vessels, such as overwork, having their wages withheld, being forced into debt bondage, and experiencing physical and sexual violence.

The Indonesian government has condemned the abuses of the Indonesian crew on the Chinese boats and called on Beijing to investigate the matter. But conservationists are also calling for both countries to look into allegations that the boats were engaged in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU).

Read the full story at Mongabay

Global Commercial Fishing Falls 6.5% to End-April Due to Coronavirus

May 12, 2020 — Global commercial fishing activity for 2020 fell by around 1 million hours as of end-April, a 6.5% decline over the two previous years, the result of plummeting demand caused by coronavirus lockdowns, according to Global Fishing Watch.

Fishing fleets spent 14.4 million hours on the water for the year so far to April 28, a decline from an average of 15.4 million hours for the same year-to-date periods of 2018 and 2019, according to the nonprofit organization that tracks fishing operation worldwide.

Global Fishing Watch collects and analyses data from onboard identification systems known as AIS, which is used by large ships to broadcast their position and avoid collisions.

The closures of many hotels and restaurants – a large market sector for fisheries – and the logistical challenge of accessing necessary port services contributed to declining prices and plummeting demand, said Tyler Clavelle, a data scientist at Global Fishing Watch.

Much of the drop can be traced to China. While China’s industrial fleet started January more active than years past, there was a large drop after the Lunar New Year holiday in late January. For the two months to March 25, China’s fishing activities fell by 1.2 million hours, a 40% percent drop from the average for the same period the previous two years.

Read the full story from Reuters at The New York Times