According to foreign producers, Chinese salmon orders only returned to 15% of normal, after the Beijing salmon and Ecuadorian Vannamei incidents.
The entire market is still in the recovery phase. In mid-June, COVID-19 infestation was detected on the cutting board of Beijing Xinfadi Market, and major supermarkets and online platforms have immediately removed salmon from their offer.
At present, some sales platforms in China have resumed the supply of salmon, and some Japanese restaurants have restarted to provide salmon dishes.
At store level, different types and brands of salmon products are displayed on the shelves, bearing inspection certificates issued by the Medical Inspection Center.
At IKEA store, however, salmon is not yet found in the food section.
Along with the fresh supermarkets, Japanese restaurants represent one of the main sales channels for salmon. Most of them have resumed the supply of salmon, while the willingness of consumers to order is quite low.
An employee of a Japanese food store comments: “When the virus was found on the salmon cutting board, almost all customers were afraid to order salmon. The situation started to improve recently, and the sales of salmon dishes have rebounded by about 20%-30%.
The salmon market is slowly recovering, and consumers’ psychology plays a key role in this process. In order to boost consumers’ confidence, market regulators must inspect the imported salmon before being sold. Merchants take the initiative to provide consumers with salmon certificates to ensure that consumers can consume it with confidence.
