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
A trade group representing China’s distant-water fishing industry has partnered with an organization representing members of the Sichuan culinary industry in a bid to drive consumption of domestically caught seafood, which could reduce dependence on international markets that have sanctioned Chinese operations.
During the 2024 Chengdu Zhoushan Oceangoing Aquatic Products and Food Festival, the Zhejiang Distant-Water Fishery Association and
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A Chinese quick-service fish restaurant chain is expanding in the U.S. as weaker consumer sentiment drags on its performance in the Chinese catering sector.
The Yu Ni Zai Yi Qi chain, which trades as Together With Fish, has opened a new Fish With You eatery in the Convoy district of San Diego, California, U.S.A. The company also has a restaurant in a Chinese neighborhood of Flushing in the New York City borough of Queens.
Fish With You
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Environment-focused news outlet DeSmog is standing by its claims of conflicts of interest impacting the MarinTrust fishmeal and fish oil certification scheme.
DeSmog’s recent investigative report, “Revealed: Industry-led West Africa Fishery Protection Measures Marred By ‘Massive Conflicts of Interest,” accused MarinTrust and other initiatives formed by the industry group IFFO – The Marine Ingredients
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China’s distant-water fishing industry is reliant on low-wage labor to buttress poor profitability, according to a report from U.K.-based nonprofit Planet Tracker.
“Fishing Thinking: Solving China’s Distant-Water Challenges,” released 30 July, found the impacts of climate change and a World Trade Organization deal to limit subsidies will force the owners of China’s huge commercial fishing fleet to transition to a
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A report recently released by London, U.K.-based sustainable finance nonprofit Planet Tracker highlights how deeply China’s distant-water fleet is entrenched in the global tuna industry and whether the Chinese government has the ability, or desire, to effectively regulate its fishing industry.
Titled “Fishful Thinking,” the report points out China’s state-owned companies have cornered the tuna portion of the
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China still has room for growth of seafood imports amid a downbeat economic mood in China, especially in terms of consumption, according to Rabobank Chief Seafood Analyst Gorjan Nikolik.
China’s seafood imports dropped 11.5 percent in the first five months of 2024 amid rising prices and broader economic troubles that have pushed Chinese consumers to eschew premium products.
“We are still under the assumption that China will grow
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Weak consumer purchasing power in China, a low availability of large-sized salmon in Norway, and a shift in processing operations to Vietnam have contributed to weakening Norwegian seafood trade to the world’s largest consumer market to start 2024.
Sales of Norwegian salmon into China fell in the first half of 2024, according to the Norwegian Seafood Council’s (NSC) office in China, with salmon shipments were down 14 percent by
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The quashing of a 2021 decision to award a license to Mowi for a salmon farm in Bantry Bay, in the south of Ireland, could have much larger consequences for the country’s aquaculture industry.
In 2021, a decade after it had first applied, Mowi received approval for Ireland’s first new marine salmon-farming permit. But, on 12 July, an Irish High Court judge shot down a decision by the country’s Aquaculture Licenses Appeals Board
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