The Chinese Government is further simplifying customs procedures to reduce clearance times

Source: Various, June 2019

On 12 June 2019, China State Council made the following announcement regarding customs clearance procedures:

• The Chinese government is committed to continue to simplify customs clearance. 
• To reduce clearance times, customs declaration will be undertaken in two steps – summary declaration followed by a full declaration.  
• A ‘Single Window’ approach aims to reduce the time spent by the companies on customs declaration, instead of repeated customs declarations to multiple government departments. 
• The utility rate of Customs ‘Single Window’ for international trade had reached 80% by the end of 2018; China plans to reach 100% by the end of this year. 
• By May 2019, the overall customs clearance time needed for import and export had decreased by 50%, compared with 2017.  

Read more

China has exempted Vietnam from customs tariffs on 33 seafood species

Source: Sohu, May 2019

China has exempted Vietnam from customs tariffs on 33 seafood species including Vietnamese rock lobsters, prawns, clams, catfish, mackerel, tuna, and octopus. The exemption has occurred at the same time as China’s endeavour to combat smuggling has intensified. 

Read more

China Customs interceptions on the Vietnam border

Sources: Various, June 2019 

On 21 June 2019, China Customs arrested 15 smugglers in Guangxi Region, bordering Vietnam.  Customs captured 40 tonnes of live rock lobsters, crabs and crown conches. Further investigation found that the gang had smuggled 2000 tonnes of seafood, worth 200 million RMB, since September 2018. They transported live rock lobsters and other seafood via the Gulf of Beibu (also known as the Gulf of Tonkin) from Vietnam by wooden raft, and then distributed the goods to various parts of China by air or cold-chain truck.  

Read more 

New supervisory site approved for Zhoushan Port paves way for direct import of live seafood

• The Government has approved a designated quarantine supervisory site in Zhoushan Port, Zhejiang Province for the import of live seafood for food purposes. This is in addition to the existing approval for chilled seafood.
• The approval paves the way for direct import of live seafood such as rock lobsters, salmon, King Crabs, and geoduck instead of transition via Shanghai and Ningbo cities.  
• Prior to the approval, the price for New Zealand Rock lobster was about 30 to 40 RMB/per 500 g higher in Zhoushan City than that in Shanghai due to long-distance transport and logistics.  

Read more

The dynamics reinforcing the importance of food branding in China 

Source: China Skinny, May 2019

The well cited stat that China has to feed over 20% of the world’s population with just 7% of its farmland is an indication that their challenges surrounding the supply of quality and cost-effective food is likely to endure. 

Read more

First-tier Chinese cities sustainable fishery consumption behaviour survey report 

Source: GoalBlue, 2019

Low Carbon Development & Promotion Centre (GoalBlue) is a Chinese NGO that aims to promote sustainable lifestyles via responsible consumption, low carbon commuting and healthy diets. GoalBlue also works with influential business leaders to create more environmentally friendly options of products and services. Currently GoalBlue has three projects ‘Smart Eating’, ‘Clean Commuting’ and ‘Blue Ocean’. They recently published an English report of its survey of seafood consumption in the 4 first-tier Chinese cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou plus Hangzhou for 2019. The full 72-page report can be downloaded here.  

Seafood a new favourite of 618 online shopping festival

Source: Sohu, June 2019

During the “618” mid-year online shopping events, seafood has become popular commodity and has become people’s "new favourite". When browsing the fresh food category in Jingdong and Tmall, more than 100 types of fish, shrimps and crabs can be found in forms of fresh, chilled, frozen products. This has developed into a thriving market.

How to attract self-driving Chinese tourists

Car rental, or self-driving tourism, is a growing trend in Chinese outbound tourism that offers significant opportunities to attract Chinese travellers to more off-the-beaten track destinations. Find out who these kinds of Chinese travellers are, their motivations for renting a car, where they’re most likely to go, the biggest challenges they face, and how to attract them to your destination and help them to have the best possible experience. 

Read more

Shandong has established its first 5G marine ranch

Source: Sohu, May 2019 

Shandong's first 5G marine ranch was established in Rongcheng's Ellen Bay National Marine Ranch. The Weihai Branch of China Mobile Company has customised 5G+ panoramic monitoring applications for marine farms. 

With the 5G underwater camera system, aquaculture managers can observe the growth of aquatic products in the office or at home through mobile phones, and the observation distance can reach up to 10 metres varying by the actual underwater conditions. 

Read more

Freezing technology keeps frozen seafood alive for 7 days

Source: Various, June 2019

A live crucian (European Carp) was frozen by being placed into a freezer at minus 28.9℃ for three minutes.  Afterwards, it was revived after being put back into a holding tank for two minutes. The experiment demonstrated that the cell membrane of the crucian in the freezing process was not damaged, and the fish would be able to be revived after being frozen for seven days. The freezing process may take longer for larger seafood.   

Read more

California Abalone – will it ever recover? 

STAG Alerts & News Bites are available at http://www.seafoodtradeadvisory.com