October 30, 2007

 

Fish stock depletion to challenge Asia's seafood industry

 

 

The depletion of fish stocks in East Asia will be among the tough hurdles that Asia's seafood industry needs to face, according to agribusiness analyst Rabobank International.

 

Patric Vizzone, regional head for Asia food and agribusiness at Rabobank International, said the decline in wild fish populations in East Asia was a global concern.

 

East Asia, which includes China, Japan, South Korea and Thailand, accounts for 45 percent or 41.7 million tonnes of the global wild catch and nearly 90 percent or 42.8 million tonnes of global aquaculture.

 

East Asia also accounts for 55 percent of global seafood production, and leads other regions in terms of annual growth at 5 percent for both wild catch and aquaculture.

 

According to Vizzone, "there is a growing regional consensus on the need for co-ordination and streamlined action to preserve this valuable and precious resource as the world's marine environment is now degraded resulting from several factors including over-fishing, sea-bed trawling, increasing upstream trash fish catches."

 

Food safety issues were another key challenge, he said.

 

While complying with safety standards may result in higher production costs, Vizzone said the growing importance of food safety in the eyes of consumers would help create a competitive advantage for producers in the long run.

 

Countries are also vying to get a sizeable chunk in the market but Thailand remains a key export base due to its strong government support and its food safety reputation in the United States and Europe, said Vizzone. He said while many seafood producers chose China as a production centre, Thailand's seafood industry Thailand's seafood industry is at a mature stage, and will be difficult to beat by competitors such as Vietnam and Malaysia and even China, he said.

 

Thailand is the world's third largest exporter of seafood after China and Norway, and is a leading producer of shrimp and tuna.

 

The country has more than 20,000 shrimp farms, and enjoys a solid advantage in terms of competitive prices, product quality and canning processes.