May 23, 2005

Iceland to build fish storage in China's Qingdao

An agreement was signed between Chinese and Icelandic companies for the construction of a 150,000-tonne storage facilities for frozen seafood in Chinese city of Qingdao.

Iceland's President Grimsson arrived at the coastal city in the eastern Shandong province with personnel of the two Icelandic companies in the deal --  Atlantis Group, the seafood company and Samskip, the logistics company. A group of 200 business people, industry watchers and journalists witnessed the signing ceremony.

Apart from building large storing facilities, their partnership agreement with the local Yijia International Trading Group involved co-operation in fields like fish farming, seafood processing and packaging, and distribution.

Atlantics Group will reportedly start with building a smaller 50,000-tonne storage in Qingdao in the next two years, while Samskip will oversee storage operations and shipping facilities. 

Shandong province's seafood output in 2004 topped 7.18 million tonnes. The value of its fishing industry in the year reached RMB113.64 billion (US$13.73 billion), 13.3 percent up from 2003. About 80 percent of Icelandic investment in China concerning fishing industry was in Shandong Province.