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
Some of the world’s largest retailers have been confirmed to be vendors of seafood sourced from Chinese tuna company Zhejiang Ocean Family (ZOF), which has recently become the focus of an Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) report on human rights abuses.
Drawing on interviews with Indonesian migrant workers who staffed ZOF vessels in recent years, the EJF has detailed labor abuse and illegal fishing such as shark finning, as well as
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China’s longstanding role as the world’s top seafood exporter has been upended in certain categories, according to 2023 trade data compiled by Beijing-based seafood and meat consultancy firm Seabridge.
Norway has eclipsed China in a handful of seafood export product categories, according to Seabridge, thanks to strong global demand for salmon and a weakened Chinese processing sector that has suffered from shaky export demand for its
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Chinese consumer protection activist issues warning about glazing additive used on Ecuadorian shrimp
A consumer protection focused Chinese social media star has warned about the potential danger of glazing additives he found on samples of shrimp imported from Ecuador.
The popular blogger, Wang Hai, said he found traces of sodium metabisulfite on shrimp he tested after buying it from e-commerce site Dongfang Zhen Xuan, owned by Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed East Buy Holding. The chemical is used by shrimp firms to give their products a fresher
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As World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations on fishing subsidies carry on at the WTO’s 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., delegates from India have stood firm in seeking to ban subsidies that grant Chinese and E.U. fleets access to foreign waters, including barring payments to third-party governments.
Daniel Skerritt, the senior analyst for ocean conservation nonprofit Oceana, told SeafoodSource that key sticking
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