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.
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The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has rejected calls by campaigners for more emphasis on labor standards in its certification process.
MSC spokesperson Sarah Grainger said there is no social claim associated with the MSC eco-label.
“Consumers understand this,” Grainger told SeafoodSource.
A global survey of more than 20,000 people, carried out in 2024 by the research organization GlobeScan on behalf of MSC, found that 99 percent
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Fan Xubing, the CEO of Beijing, China-based seafood consultancy firm Seabridge International, has predicted a drop in Chinese seafood imports for 2024 and highlighted that exporters shipping products to the country have had to settle for lower prices if they want to maintain a foothold in the giant market.
“Personally, I think China's seafood imports in 2024 will be less than those of 2023. I think the economy in China in the first half of
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Ocean One Holdings, a major Hong Kong seafood importer and distributor, has blamed disappointing financial results on a growing trend of the city losing catering and retail spending to lower-cost cities across the border in mainland China.
Ocean One Holdings recorded revenue of approximately HKD 458.7 million (USD 58.8 million, EUR 53.3 million) for the year ended 31 March 2024, down 1.8 percent year over year. The group, which imports seafood
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Seafood suppliers are set to benefit from shifts in Chinese dietary trends toward more healthy proteins, as well as changes to the country’s foodservice sector, according to a new report from Utrecht, Netherlands-based Rabobank on China’s meat protein market.
Titled “New Consumption Trends in China Offer Opportunities for Animal Proteins,” the report outlines why seafood traders, who have been gloomy recently about soft
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A Chinese seafood-processing company is branching out into the bar business in a bid to boost its loss-making principal business.
Gaodi Holdings, based in Xiamen in southern China, told investors it would invest over CNY 5 million (USD 700,000, EUR 650,000) on equipment to set up a series of bars.
“Since 2020, the Group has accumulated losses of more than CNY 270 million [USD 37.8 million, EUR 35.1 million], mainly on its packaging and
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Seafood processors in China are shutting down processing capacity this summer due to slack demand from key buyers, according to a leading seafood trader.
“All processors are reducing production capacity by at least 30 percent,” said David Jiang, managing director at Unibond Seafood International Ltd., which sources seafood in China for European customers.
Jiang said processors in China are “facing difficulties due to weak
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