STAG News Bites: 5 May 2023

Some of these articles are in foreign languages and can be automatically translated on Google Chrome.

Note: These articles are a round-up of news media in key seafood markets. The information is provided as part of our market intelligence service to Australian seafood exporters. The views expressed in the media articles are not those of the STAG and are in no way endorsed by us.

💹 China: Seafood market conditions

China’s annual summer fishing moratorium began on 1 May, banning all fishing activities in seas to China’s north, east, and south until August, in order to conserve marine fisheries. Typically, this is a time of seafood price fluctuations, as this report from Ningbo describes:

"Although it is much cheaper than before the Spring Festival, the price of high-quality seafood is still firm, and it will rise before the May Day holiday." Read the full article here (Chinese).

Here is another report from the Ningbo seafood market, focusing on the role of imported products to fill consumption gaps during the fishing moratorium, “including razor clams, scallop, mussels, abalone, oysters, snails, etc., not only from China, but also from Vietnam, New Zealand, Canada and other countries. In the past, big abalone and oysters were considered rare by consumers, but now they are blooming everywhere, and the sales volume will be better during the fishing moratorium." Read more here (Chinese).

This piece from the Global Times contains more information about the moratorium, as well as
the impact on seafood production and consumption in various parts of China. Read here (Chinese).

📺 Seafood consumer trends video

Tradex has published another of its ‘3 minute market insight’ videos about recent trends in the seafood consumption and production sectors. Watch the video on Youtube here.

💻 China: E-commerce

STAG News Bites is a keen observer of developments in China’s online seafood retail channels, where live sales events with same-day delivery are growing in popularity. According to one customer: “Once upon a time, if you wanted to eat the freshest seafood, you had to go to the beach to pick it up. Now, "watching live broadcast + ordering with mobile phone + delivery within hours or even minutes" has become a new and more ideal way for more and more people to "get seafood home". Read more here (Chinese).

🦐 Taiwan: Mid-marathon lobster and abalone feast

The organisers of Taiwan’s Central Park Marathon have enticed runners with a unique and luxurious food station, featuring restaurant-quality offerings of high quality seafoods, including lobster and abalone. Have a look at the runner’s reactions in this video and read more about the promotional event here (Chinese).

🎪 Korea: Noryangjin seafood wet market

Interested in exporting to Korea? Get to know one of Seoul’s biggest and most popular seafood wet markets here.

Image by: Hyemin Lee Stripes Korea

✅ MSC: What does it mean to the Australian lobster industry?

Geraldton Fishermen's Cooperative CEO Matt Rutter spoke to SeafoodSource.com about the importance of the Marine Stewardship Council’s certification programs. Read more here.

🦪 France: Oyster revolution

French innovators in the oyster sector have debuted a new farming system to address concerns around labour, sustainability, and survivability: the “Roll’oyster”.

“The working principle is to artificially reproduce tides, wind and current with an alternation of immersion and emergence of oyster baskets. As its name suggests, it is a rolling automated system, and this can be programmed to alter the duration and frequency of emergence/immersion cycles.”