Table 15  Seafood processing capacity of China in 1996

	Total	State-owned	Unit
Enterprises	5362	732
Processing capacity	10321410	4836096	tons/year
Cold storage	4241	1115
Freezing capacity	77506	23751	tons/day
Cold storing capacity	1109477	523027	tons/time
Ice making capacity	195172	38439	tons/day

 

A multi-variety processing system has been formulated in which fish, shrimp, mussels and algae are the main stored products.  Activities of seafood processing include cold storing, freezing, drying, smoking, canning etc.  The major types of processed products are categorized as follows:

   frozen products

   dried products

   smoked products

   canned products

   surimi products

   fish meal

   products made by fish oil and fish liver

   additives and seasoning products

   medicines

   alga glue

   art craft (pearl)

Although the sector has gained a great development, there is still a long way to go to meet the increasing demands as at present only about 30% of the total seafood are processed, whereas most of them are still sold on the markets directly from the farms, especially fresh water fish.  Among all the processed seafood, most of the share is developed into frozen products, and then in turn dried, smoked, surimi, canned etc. 

 The major constrains facing to the sector now are:

   weak infrastructures

   lack of funds

   backward management

   consumer’s habit, most consumers, especially in the south, like live seafood.

3.2    Companies involved in processing

There are about 5362 companies involved in fish seafood processing industry, of which 732 are the State-owned as indicated in the table 15.  Collective and private owned enterprises have developed rapidly, accounting for more than 80% in terms of numbers.   As demand for processed products is growing quickly, operators are investing heavily in the modernization and expansion of the production facilities and the joint ventures have been becoming active in this sector.  Besides China National Fishery Corporation (CNFC) which has some sub-companies distributed in Yantai of Shandong province, Zhoushan of Zhejiang province and Zhanjiang of Guangdong province, most of local marine fishery corporations have their own subordinate seafood processing plants or companies.  The major companies involved in fish processing activities are:

   China National Fishery Corporation (CNFC)

   Dalian Marine fishery General Co., Liaoning Province

   Dalian Municipal Fishery Co. Group, Liaoning Province

   Dalian Municipal Aquaculture Co., Liaoning Province

   Qingdao Marine Fishery Co., Shandong Province

   Qingdao Haifeng Co. Group. Ltd., Shandong Province

   Yangkou Marine Fishery General Co., Souguang, Shandong Province

   Shidao Marine Fishery General Co., Rongchen, Shandong Province

   Tianjin Fishery Product Supplying & Marketing Co., Tianjin

   Longshan Eel Union Co., Jiangshu Province

   Shanghai Fishery Co. Group, Shanghai

   Zhoushan Marine Fishery Co. (CNFC), Zhejiang Province

   Xingye Co. Ltd., Zhoushan Municipality, Zhejiang Province

   Haihong General Co., Taizhou, Zhejiang Province

   Fujian Marine Fishery General Co., Fujian Province

   Huasun Food Industry Co. Ltd., Fujian Province

   Golden Eel Co. Ltd., Guangdong Province

   Beihai Marine Fishery Co., Guangxi Province

Unlike the coastal areas, inland fish processing industry are less developed.  However, in the major production areas like Jiangshu, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi, the processing enterprises can also be found, mainly producing frozen fish, head and viscera removed fish, surimi and fish leather.

3.3    The quality standards

As rising demand has led to higher prices, both quality and standards have improved.  Differences in prices for different species, standards and quality grades have increased, giving producers and distributors a much better incentive for supplying high quality seafood.  In order to enhance seafood quality control, China has currently carried out the principle of security management.  The national authorities have issued a serial laws, regulations and standards related to seafood quality control such as The Product Quality Law, The Food Hygiene Law, The Standardization Law and The Commodity Inspection Law, and instructed The Ministry of Agriculture, The State Technique Monitoring Bureau and The State Import-Export Commodity Inspection Bureau work together for seafood quality control.

For those exported seafood, China primarily adapts the existing international standards or the standards and regulations by targeted countries in order to meet their demands.  For example, the processing method for baked eel exported to Japan is based on the requirements by Japanese Government and the traders.

To ensure the quality of exported seafood, the processing enterprises have been gradually instructed to follow the international quality management system, such as HACCP created by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Seafood Quality Management Criteria by Canadian Fishery and Marine Ministry and the related regulations by the European Union.

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