There’s been a huge increase in the output and earnings of China’s distant-water fleet since 2010 – but the fast pace of the sector’s growth may be over.
A report on the sector from market research group Qianzhan reveals that while the output of China’s distant-water catch doubled from one million metric tons (MT) in 2010 to two million MT in 2014, the growth rate of the sector in 2020 had slowed to 6.8 percent and a total catch of 2.32 million MT. And in the 2019-2020 period, an “adjustment in the content” of the catch meant the value of the output from the sector fell by 1.8 percent year-over-year to CNY 23.9 billion (USD 3.8 billion, EUR 3.3 billion), Qianzhan said.
While the Qianzhan research report doesn’t spell out what the adjustment was, China’s expanding distant-water fleet has recently put more focus on squid. Data from China’s Agriculture Ministry data shows that squid (520,300 MT in 2020) and tuna (327,400 MT in 2020) now constitute the top two species in the catch – 22.5 percent and 14 percent of the 2020 catch total, respectively. China’s distant-water squid catch was worth CNY 26.2 billion (USD 4.2 billion, EUR 3.6 billion) in 2018, up from CNY 13.5 billion (USD 2.1 billion, EUR 1.8 billion) in 2012.
Along with higher catches, the percentage of China’s distant-water catch shipped back to China for domestic consumption has been rising. According to Qianzhan, 68 percent of the distant-water catch was shipped back to Chinese ports for domestic processing and sale in 2020, amounting to 1.57 million MT, versus 743,000 MT that was sold to foreign buyers.
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https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/business-finance/chinas-distant-water-majors-stung-by-poor-results-despite-bullish-market-conditions