With a customer demand dramatically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s fresh salmon imports are expected to decrease by 40,000 tons in 2020.
Chinese consumers worry about the safety of imported seafood due to several COVID-19 cases related to it and avoid buying.
Consumer confidence in salmon is at a historically low point. The current retail sales of salmon are only 10% to 20% of the usual level. So far, among all types of seafood, salmon and Vannamei shrimp have been hit the hardest.
In May, China imported 6,700 tons of fresh salmon, an increase of 4% compared to May 2019. However, in June, the COVID-19 infestation was detected on the salmon filleting board in the Beijing Xinfadi market. Affected by this incident, the import volume of salmon fell to 3,000 tons in June, a 51% decrease year-on-year. Since the Xinfadi market incident, salmon sales have recovered very slowly.
It is expected that this year China’s salmon imports could only reach 50% of the amount of last year. In 2019, China totally imported 80,000 tons of fresh salmon. As for the first half of this year, China imported only 26,000 tons of fresh salmon, a 29% decrease compared with the same period last year.
The whole aquatic industry work to regain consumer confidence in seafood. Retailers post the product’s nucleic acid test report. They also stick a label on products indicating type of product, origin, date of entry into China, and the warranty that the product is virus-free.
