July 3, 2009

China Marine Food Group, a China-based processor of seafood-based snack foods and fresh and frozen marine catch, announced Thursday (Jul 2) the company's plans to lead a government-sponsored research project that will be focusing on developing consumer-ready seafood products from low-cost seafood items using newly developed technologies.

Organised by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the project was awarded to three commercial fish processors operating in the Fujian province. The objective of the project is to strengthen the province's position as a leader in the production and development of consumer-ready seafood products. The study will also focus on each participating company's efforts on harvesting seafood only in the Fujian province and categorised as low-cost marine catch.

Liu Pengfei, Chairman and CEO of China Marine, said as their research and development efforts have been centred on this same directive, their participation as the leader in this project allows them to further improve their own expertise as well as providing them with funding to research new methods to develop products for their market.

Liu added that the company anticipates a high-level of collaboration between their R&D team and other organisations and a mutually beneficial result for both China Marine and the Fujian's provincial government.

The participating companies have already received a provincial grant of US$0.7 million out of the total budget of US$2.3 million for the three-year development period. The grants will help the companies to offset costs related to R&D staff, next generation production and processing equipment and raw materials.

Meanwhile, China Marine expects the project to result in both product and production advancements which the company can commercialise to expand its market share and spur its revenue growth through its more than 2,000 retail points in China. The project also requires that the food products developed as part of this initiative meet the "Green Food" and "Healthy Food" standards governed by the Ministry of Health and Bureau of Green Food organisations.