Seafood Guides: Many countries attach importance to China's high-end seafood market

In 2021, China became the world's largest seafood consumer with a total consumption of 65 million tons, while the annual consumption of the entire European Union was only 13 million tons, which was only 1/5 of China's total.

In addition to the total volume, the Chinese consumption of high-end seafood is also growing rapidly. Taking salmon as an example, in 2023, China was the fastest growing market for Atlantic salmon consumption in the world, consuming a total of 108,000 tons of Atlantic salmon, a year-on-year increase of 43%.

The salmon market outside China generally performed poorly

At the same time, the consumption of Atlantic salmon in France, Japan, and Switzerland has fallen sharply. This may be related to factors such as the economic weakness and currency depreciation of these countries. In addition, the transportation cost of Atlantic salmon has actually increased in recent years. In contrast, it can only be said that the Chinese really love salmon.

And the per capita seafood consumption of Chinese people still has a lot of room for growth compared with Europe, Japan, South Korea and other countries. Iceland is the country with the highest per capita seafood consumption in the world, with data of about 91kg/person, while China's data is about 39.75/kg (including algae), and the gap is still not small.

Although China's per capita seafood consumption is unlikely to reach the level of countries such as Japan and South Korea in terms of food culture and resource endowment, this does not prevent seafood exporting countries such as Norway, Russia, and Canada from placing high hopes on Chinese consumers.

The Norwegian Prime Minister expressed his hope to cooperate with relevant Chinese departments to work together to eliminate obstacles that make seafood expensive, and emphasized that the freshest products should be exported to China. The Norwegian Seafood Council brought many companies to China's fishery exhibitions, trying to further expand its popularity and influence in the Chinese market.

On new media platforms such as Xiaohongshu, the Norwegian Seafood Council invited food experts to create content that incorporates Norwegian seafood into Chinese cuisine to attract more consumers to be interested in Norwegian seafood.

In new consumer channels such as Hema, the largest salmon producer in Norway, Mowi, and the fourth largest producer, Semakta, have already reached a cooperation agreement to ensure a stable and preferential supply of 700,000 salmon to Hema throughout the year by signing a year-round supply plan with breeding bases and factories.

In order to cater to the special needs of the Chinese, Norway is even considering exporting sea cucumbers in addition to its main products (salmon and mackerel). Norwegian exporter Eir of Norway plans to export high-end sea cucumber products named "Viking Power" to Asian countries, especially China.

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The Chinese market is an incremental source for Norwegian fisheries

Russia is another European country that has strengthened its seafood exports to China. According to Chinese customs statistics, China is the main export market for Russian seafood, accounting for about 50% of Russia's total seafood exports. The main exported aquatic products include haddock, herring, sardines, fish meal and crabs.

Russia is the largest exporter of crabs to China. Yurov, deputy general manager of the Russian Crab Industry Group, said that Russia plans to increase the export volume of fresh red king crabs and high-quality crabs to China by 50% in 2024, because "China's demand for precious crabs is growing, and the growth in 2024 is expected to exceed 50%."

In order to better export seafood to China, Russia has even started supporting infrastructure construction, such as the construction of the "Princeton 2" international transport corridor to connect Hunchun City, Jilin Province, China, with the Russian Port of Zarubino, and allocated 3 billion rubles to speed up the shipbuilding progress of shipyards in the Far East.

Countries such as Norway and Russia are optimistic about the prospects for stable growth in China's seafood consumption market, so they will make so many long-term investments.