Mark Godfrey is an Irish journalist covering the agriculture and fisheries sectors in Asia, with a focus on China. Proficient in Mandarin, he has frequently traveled across China's fisheries and aquaculture regions and learned the inner workings of China's corporate world during a nearly three-year stint at the Financial Times' “China Confidential” publication. He has also reported widely across Southeast Asia and the former Soviet Union. He has educational certificates in agriculture and food science, as well as Mandarin.
Author Archive
Beginning 9 February, citizens of China and Singapore will have 30-day visa-free access to each other’s countries. That could be a boon for Singaporean seafood restaurant chain JUMBO Group, which recently opened two new outlets in the city-state.
JUMBO’s new restaurants in Ng Ah Sio Bak Kut Teh and Clarke Quay Central will be a draw for visitors to Singapore from China, who had driven consumption at upscale restaurants across
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With an expanded U.S. ban on Russian seafood coming into effect that now includes products processed in third countries, Russian exporters are increasingly pivoting to China.
At the 2024 China-Russia Economic and Trade Cooperation Negotiation Conference on 29 and 30 January, in Shenyang, China, 55 contracts worth CNY 13.6 billion (USD 1.9 billion, EUR 1.8 billion) were signed, including several seafood deals. Numerous seafood companies and cold
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State-owned tuna-fishing firm Shandong Zhonglu Oceanic Fisheries recently claimed that its operations off the coast of Ghana shipped 17,000 metric tons (MT) of the pelagic fish back to mainland China in 2023.
The company said its subsidiary-operated African Star vessel wrapped up a very successful year off of West Africa, which included one expedition in which the company landed 150 MT of tuna – a company record. It said its operations in
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U.S. retailers and distributors cutting ties with Chinese processors due to forced labor allegations has stymied demand for Chinese-processed products, according to the director of a major processing operation in northern China.
“There has been a notable impact on demand due to the unwarranted and baseless allegations of ‘forced labor’ within the Chinese processing sector by some U.S. media,” the executive, who
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Aquaculture monitoring technology has gotten caught up in a propaganda campaign across state media and social media warning about the dangers of “foreign spies” in China.
A China Central Television’s Legal Channel 9 report that ran recently on several state media channels featured a Dalian resident identified as “Mr. Zhang,” who said he was visited by several uninvited foreign equipment suppliers in 2019 and agreed
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A recent conference in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou highlighted the country's big push to secure tuna resources and build out a value-added tuna sector.
At the Yangtze Tuna Industry Innovation and Development Conference in Hangzhou in mid-January, China’s largest tuna firms exhibited, including Ocean Family, Dayang Family, China Water Group, Shandong Zhonglu Ocean (Yantai) Food, Ningbo Today Food, Zhejiang Sunac Food Industry,
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World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiators have given themselves until 9 February 2024 to arrive at an agreement on a draft text limiting subsidies contributing to overfishing and overcapacity in global fisheries.
A series of intensive talks will begin at the World Trade Organization over the next two weeks aiming to fill many of the gaps that remain in the working draft of the agreement currently under revision.
Iceland WTO Ambassador Einar
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Norwegian salmon firm Baring Farsund has signed a cooperative agreement to develop partnerships with local government and several seafood companies in Guangdong province, China.
Baring executives participated in a signing ceremony on 15 January of a strategic cooperation agreement and the joint establishment of a China-Europe Marine Fishery Industry Innovation Park to promote the deepwater off-shore mariculture industry in waters off Guangdong
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China has retained cuts made in 2023 to tariffs on imported seafood products as it seeks to diversify and deepen its food sources.
China’s government announced provisional rates introduced in 2023 on several seafood categories will remain in place through 2024, including a 7 percent tariff on imported Atlantic salmon and a drop from 7 percent to 2 percent on frozen cod and pollock.
A more affluent, urban population is driving up
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Imported seafood could be in for a bumper Chinese New Year thanks to a huge marketing campaign from online retailer Pinduoduo.
The Shanghai-based company told media at a launch ceremony it is spending CNY 3 billion (USD 420 million, EUR 390 million) on advertising and discounts, including on seafood products that are typically favored gifts during the Chinese New Year festival, which falls on 10 February this year.
Argentine red shrimp,
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