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
Ireland Fisheries Minister Charlie McConalogue said in an address to Ireland’s parliament that the country is making progress in achieving sustainability for its fish stocks.
In 2022, 38 stocks of interest to Ireland were fished below maximum sustainable yield, up from 20 stocks in 2013, McConalogue said.
“The number of stocks overfished is 15 in 2022, but it must be noted that this is down 22 in previous years,” he said,
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More than 80 percent of Chinese manufacturers are facing labor shortages equivalent to 10 to 30 percent of their workforces, according to a survey by a Chinese human resources consultancy.
The research by China International Intellectech Co. (CIIC) aligns with data from China’s Ministry of Education and Ministry of Human Resources, which have both predicted a shortage of ...
Photo courtesy of Dmitry
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The Nasdaq Stock Exchange allowed the resumption of trading in publicly traded shares of Pingtan Marine Enterprise, which was sanctioned by the U.S. government on 9 December.
Trading in Pingtan Marine resumed at 11 a.m. Eastern time on 19 December, after being halted on 9 December following the announcement of sanctions from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which effectively bar the company from doing
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A Chinese government spokesperson has assailed U.S. sanctions against two Chinese distant-water fishing firms as evidence of “double standards.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning, responding on 9 December to a question from TASS, the Russian news service, rejected allegations of human rights abuses onboard Chinese fishing vessels and China said punitive actions taken by the U.S. against Pingtan Marine and Dalian Ocean
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There has been a big increase in the distant-water catch landed in China’s top fishing port in the first 11 months of 2022.
Home to some of China’s largest squid and tuna processors, Zhoushan, in Zhejiang province south of Shanghai, reported a 22 percent increase in landed volumes through the first 11 months of 2022, reaching 608,000 metric tons.
The state-owned fishing firm CNFC Overseas Fishing is a major presence in
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The streets of Beijing have been nearly empty over the past week amid a surge in Covid cases following China’s abrupt reversal of its zero-Covid policy.
Following widespread protests across China beginning in late November, the Chinese government moved to ease some pandemic-related restrictions on Wednesday, 7 December. China’s government is no longer requiring mass testing and has backed down from implementing mass
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A deal between two Chinese seafood firms have been flagged by a risk compliance consultancy for potentially coming under the U.S. Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
The law, which was signed in December 2021, bars entry to the U.S. market of any goods connected to Uyghur forced labor, an ethnic minority group in China. It was enacted in response to China’s suppression of the local Uyghur population, which includes allegations of
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Taiwan is threatening to elevate a dispute over a Chinese ban on Taiwanese seafood exports to World Trade Organization arbitration.
Nearly all Taiwan’s seafood exporters have reported their products have been blocked from entering China. Many reported being informed by Chinese Customs they were not in compliance with new labeling laws that came into effect in January 2022. Taiwanese seafood-trading firms were asked to fill out
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Chinese seafood executives are hoping for improvement in 2023 after a difficult 2022, a year during which Covid-related restrictions battered domestic demand.
Lin Xiaowen, general manager at Hainan Eternal Spring Fisheries Co., said business has gotten worse, not better, for her company through 2022.
“Quarter one and quarter two were good for the whole industry, for filleting, feed, and for farmers and exporters. But from the
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Irish fishing industry representatives want a fight with Norway over blue whiting quota to be moved out of the hands of European Union technocrats.
The fight stems from negotiations between the European Union and Norway regarding awards of fishing access to each other’s waters. Irish fishing officials have expressed concern the European Union will push ahead with a trade of blue whiting quota and access to Irish waters in exchange for cod
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