An annual output of more than 2 million tons is not enough! There is a 1 million ton high-end shrimp market to be developed nationwide, and aquatic premade dishes have a huge incremental space

Recently, at a professional aquatic product conference in Jiangmen, Guangdong, Zhang Song, vice president of Guangdong Nutriera Group Co., Ltd., proposed that with the in-depth development of the consumer market, the requirements of Chinese consumers for shrimp products will increase rapidly in the future, and the demand for large-sized and high-quality shrimp will become more and more obvious.

Data shows that China is the world's largest consumer and importer of shrimp. It not only consumes more than 2 million tons of self-produced shrimp each year, but also needs to import about 1 million tons of shrimp to meet the growing consumer demand.

"The 1 million tons of shrimp used to supply the high-end market is a positive space worth looking forward to." Zhang Song believes that with my country's shrimp consumption of about 3 million tons, it is very likely that in the future, 1 million tons of imported shrimp, 1 million tons of self-raised shrimp will meet the low-end and mid-end markets, and 1 million tons of self-raised shrimp will supply the high-end market. Participants unanimously agreed that at present, my country's high-end aquatic product market is still in its infancy and has great potential in the future.

premade shrimp dishes are hot

High-end shrimp market to be developed

In recent years, the recognition of premade aquatic dishes by consumers has steadily increased. According to a survey conducted by Red Can.com, nearly 70% of the consumers interviewed said that the number of times they will buy premade seafood dishes will increase in the next year. Prawns are one of the most popular tracks for premade seafood dishes. According to data from relevant institutions, in the rapidly developing C-end market, the highest-selling products in premade seafood dishes are fish and shrimp products, with consumer purchase ratios reaching 61.3% and 58.7% respectively.

At present, premade shrimp dishes mainly include various shrimp semi-finished and finished products such as crayfish, mud shrimp, black tiger shrimp, such as spicy crayfish, crispy shrimp, tempura shrimp, and seasoned shrimp meat, seasoned shrimp tails and shrimp paste, shrimp cakes, shrimp dumplings, shrimp balls and other shrimp paste products. According to statistics from JD.com, Meituan and other platforms, among premade shrimp dishes, the largest number of products are crayfish and shrimp paste, and high-quality large-sized shrimps are still in short supply.

In fact, some companies have begun to get involved in this field in recent years. In Shandong, Bohai Aquatic Products, which specializes in ecologically cultivated "salt pan shrimp", is developing a variety of processing technologies. The large and high-quality processed shrimps have great market potential. In the company's specialty store on the JD platform, grilled large salt pan shrimps with the "organic product" logo can be sold for 128 yuan per 300 grams, and fresh shrimps can also be sold for 128 yuan per catty.

"The shrimp produced in my country is mainly in the small and medium-sized market of 30-50 heads per catty, and the large-sized shrimp market of 5-15 heads per catty is almost all given to imported shrimp." Professor Ye Yuantu, a senior aquatic technology expert, said that it is generally recognized in the shrimp farming industry that the larger the shrimp, the more valuable it is. China has the world's leading breeding technology, breeding and processing equipment, and the largest shrimp consumption market. It should seize the high-end shrimp market and create greater value.

premade dishes continue to grow

Promote more industries to improve quality and efficiency

In 2024, "New Year's dishes" and "New Year's fish" are popular, and there is a buying boom. In recent years, as various standards have become more and more perfect, the quality level of premade dishes has steadily improved and has been recognized by more and more consumers.

Shrimp has always been a popular dish on the table and a major category with an important position in the aquatic industry. Chen Shengjun, a researcher at the South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, believes that with the improvement of people's living standards and the increasing attention to health and wellness, the aquatic product premade dish industry will continue to develop, and the consumption of shrimp premade dishes will also continue to grow.

In November this year, the "Super Han Shrimp Improvement Plan" event organized by Guolian Aquatic Products was held in Zhengzhou. At the scene, Guolian Aquatic Products released a new standard for the billion-dollar single product "Han Shrimp" to further develop the market. Yang Xiaogang, head of domestic marketing at Guolian Aquatic Products Group, introduced that the company has made public the standards for shrimp ice coating rate, net weight, uniformity, taste, etc. to the market to provide the market with better product choices.

In China, people attach great importance to the "freshness" and "beauty" of ingredients. The advantages of aquatic products such as color, appearance, and flavor can bring effective premiums. At present, in the shrimp premade food track, leading companies such as Guolian, Hengxing, and Bohai Aquatic Products have built a complete industrial chain. Through the construction of "from seedlings to tables", they not only ensure the stable supply of raw materials, but also continuously improve the quality from the source. It is worth noting that the current listed companies and leading companies in my country's premade food are most concentrated in Guangdong, Shandong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangsu, Anhui, Guangxi and other places, which are highly overlapped with the production areas of popular shrimps such as prawns and crayfish, providing a good foundation for improving the quality of ingredients and developing more high-end products.

In 2023, in the inland mountain city of Chongqing, locally farmed fresh prawns were listed in Hema stores and sold well. Chen Dan, chairman of Hengxing Group, believes that in the next 3-4 years, the scale of the premade food market will definitely exceed one trillion yuan, and premade food will definitely change people's dining methods and even lifestyles. Many experts said that the accelerated development of premade meals will open up a larger market space and drive the shrimp industry from "large-scale shrimp farming" to "raising big shrimp"; in the future, more aquatic products will enter the fast lane of improving quality and efficiency, leading more industries to prosperity.