Saving Seafood

Coronavirus ‘no-contact, no-handshake policy’ at Seafood Expo in Boston

March 2, 2020 — Organizers for the upcoming Seafood Expo North America in Boston are encouraging attendees to follow a “no-contact, no-handshake policy” because of coronavirus concerns.

The Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America trade event — at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in the Seaport, from March 15 to 17 — will also have significantly fewer visitors from Asia because of the highly contagious disease.

“Due to travel restrictions into the United States, we are expecting to see an impact from Mainland China, which annually represents 5% of the combined visitor and exhibitor attendee base and 9% of the exhibit space,” a spokeswoman for the expo said in a statement. “Despite the situation, we have more than 1,100 companies that are still planning on exhibiting this March.”

About 80% of the expo visitors come from the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Read the full story at The Boston Herald

China leans heavily on subsidies to blunt coronavirus impact

March 2, 2020 — China is unleashing a new wave of subsidies to bolster the seafood sector, as it struggles with closed factories and migrant workers stranded far away from their workplaces due to fallout from the COVID-19 coronavirus.

China is waiving taxes and payments to seafood buyers who take up the supply sitting in the country’s aquaculture ponds, and the powerful Export Import Bank has offered up to CNY 1.5 billion (USD 210 million, EUR 195 million) in loans to distant-water fishing firms and processors in Fujian Province as a way to prop up the sector.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Coronavirus to have long-term repercussions on China’s aquaculture sector

February 28, 2020 — The ongoing outbreak of COVID-19, commonly known as the coronavirus, is expected to have a long-term impact on China’s seafood sector as everything from aquaculture to processing is being affected by labor shortages and wary Chinese consumers.

The Chinese government has mounted a major propaganda offensive this week to convince seafood processing factories to recommence work, with good news stories appearing in local media nationwide of workers arriving back at factories.

Read the full story at Seafood Source