One hour before the fish opening ceremony, the booths in the food and agricultural products exhibition area of the 4th China International Import Expo (hereinafter referred to as the "CIIE") are crowded, and a cordon has been raised around them to avoid more enthusiastic influx of spectators.
At the end of the day, the "blockbuster" exhibit finally unveiled its veil – this 353 kg bluefin tuna deservedly became the most important exhibit in the exhibition area.
This is the second time that the Expo has presented such a large tuna, and the last time was in 2019 before the epidemic.
At the second CIIE, a tuna that was still swimming in the Mediterranean Sea on November 2 was airlifted to Shanghai through the cold chain of fishing, and met with the audience on November 6, which took only 4 days.
Since the new crown virus can be transmitted over long distances through the cold chain, this time for epidemic prevention, the tuna took a total of 9 days from the start to the opening of the fish. Comparing before and after, it can be seen that the impact of the epidemic on the marine industry still exists.
However, the first financial reporter visited the booths of many seafood companies in the exhibition area, and they told the first financial reporter that the impact of the epidemic on their production and fishing has been basically digested or adapted, and now the most headache problem has shifted to logistics.
As a tuna that serves as a traffic
Nearly 3 meters long and weighing 353 kilograms, the fish king is the heaviest imported bluefin tuna ever built in Shanghai.
According to Yao Qifei, director of the China International Tuna Trading Center, it is also the second heaviest import in the country since record, and the previous largest one was 393 kilograms.
This king tuna grows in the Spanish Mediterranean Sea. Because of the tuna's amazing swimming speed and endurance, it took the fisherman a day to catch it out of the water. At 9:00 p.m. local time on October 29, the journey departed from Madrid, Spain, and arrived at Shanghai Pudong Airport on the 31st through the cold chain.
After completing the procedures such as entry-exit inspection and quarantine, nucleic acid testing and customs declaration, it arrived at the China International Tuna Trading Center on Changxing Island on November 2. In order to ensure that nothing goes wrong, in the spot trading floor of the trading center at room temperature of 0 to 4 degrees Celsius, the "Fish King" was changed to ice many times.
Before each ice change, the staff must be fully armed to kill the venue. Subsequently, the tuna is removed from the freezer of zero degree preservation, and after a full body "physical examination" of the tuna, it is put into another custom foam box, and the fresh crushed ice is laid layer by layer to maximize the freshness of the tuna. This process is repeated twice a day, and each ice change consumes about 1 ton of crushed ice.
There are about 40 species of tuna worldwide. Usually people eat canned fish and fish floss and other products more from yellowfin tuna, this tuna production is large, the price is relatively low; and the tuna usually used to make high-grade sashimi and sushi, is the bluefin tuna, it is tender meat, high protein but low fat content, its number is relatively rare, the price is relatively high.
At the fish opening ceremony on the 6th, professional division technicians and assistants from Japan demonstrated the whole process of fish opening on the spot. The technician first cuts the tuna along the spine into four large pieces: two large pieces of belly meat and two large pieces of back meat.
Secondly, take out the most essential part of the belly meat - large fat, which is the most fat and the most expensive part of the tuna's abdomen. This large fat is pink and white "snowflake", and the fat of the fish meat reaches 63, which means that the meat is fat. The method of processing large fat into sashimi was also demonstrated.
Japanese diners are veteran lovers of bluefin tuna. At the Tokyo Fish Market's Annual New Year's Auction, it often fetches sky-high prices, most recently in 2019 when a sushi chain owner bid for a 278-kilogram bluefin tuna weighing 333.6 million yen (about 18.9 million yuan).
However, due to epidemic prevention requirements, the audience at this year's Expo site can no longer eat raw tuna fillets. But the "Fish King" has a good ability to absorb gold. Before the opening of the Expo, 4 buyers had preemptively booked this "Fish King", and then they would go to the table of the public through their sales channels.
The salmon market recovered quickly
Since June last year, the source of the local epidemic in many parts of the country has pointed to the cold chain, and imported cold chain products have been repeatedly detected carrying the new crown virus, and salmon was the first to be "shot". Now that tuna has become an Internet celebrity at the Expo, is the salmon okay?
During the Expo, Andreas Thorud, director of the Norwegian Seafood Board in China, told the first financial reporter that although the overall import volume of Chinese salmon has not yet returned to the pre-epidemic level, Norway's exports of salmon to China have surpassed 2019 this year. At present, Norwegian salmon has a market share of more than 50% in China.
He revealed that according to the latest available data for the first 43 weeks of this year, Norwegian chilled salmon exports to China (year-on-year) increased by 68%, which is a good proof that the Chinese market has recovered. In addition to salmon, he said, sales of Norwegian mackerel and Arctic cod in China have also increased rapidly, gaining recognition from Chinese consumers.
Tong Anrui told the first financial reporter that in fact, norwegian seafood exports to China this year also hit a record high. Exports in the first 10 months amounted to 151,000 tonnes, worth NOK 4.4 billion (about RMB3.293 billion), up 40% and 35% year-on-year, respectively, and 12% compared to 2019.
Li Lu, general manager of Hofseth, a large Norwegian salmon processing company in Greater China, also confirmed to the first financial reporter that as far as his company is concerned, the retail side has basically returned to the pre-epidemic level, and the catering channel has also recovered to about 80% before the epidemic. Hofses is one of the ten Norwegian companies participating in this expo.
Although the overall situation is good, Li Lu still expressed his concerns to the first financial reporter. He said that due to the impact of the epidemic, international logistics resources are tight, the efficiency of logistics declines and costs rise, and the final increase in costs will be reflected in sales prices.
The current retail price of chilled salmon has exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Li Lu said that in fact, the price of salmon in the international market has been relatively stable, and there has been no big rise or fall, and it has fluctuated slightly within a reasonable range. The rise in the price of chilled salmon is mainly affected by the increase in logistics prices.
He explained to the first financial reporter that before the epidemic, many chilled salmon were transported with international passenger flights, and now passenger flights have been greatly reduced, and the frequency of freight flights has also decreased. At the same time, due to the epidemic situation, a number of inspection and quarantine procedures are required after arrival, and the goods are usually obtained one to two days later than before the epidemic.
This is true of chilled salmon shipped by airplane, and frozen salmon transported by freighter is more logistically problematic. At present, frozen container containers are in short supply, and it is necessary to lock the containers in advance to be able to transport frozen salmon out, and after arriving at the port, it is necessary to face the problem of port backlog. However, this has eased recently.
For the difficulties caused by the current logistics for the transportation of seafood, Tong Anrui told the first financial reporter that although there are many difficulties and obstacles in front of it, even under such conditions, China still imports more Norwegian seafood. It is believed that the two sides can gradually find ways to solve various problems, and the Expo is a good platform for importers and exporters to communicate and discuss such issues together.
Whether it is bluefin tuna or once cold salmon, any importer will find that in China, this "world market, shared market, everyone's market", the Expo is the best "display stage".
By the end of 2020, China had become the world's second largest import market for 12 consecutive years and a major export destination for many countries and regions. Shu Jueting, spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, recently said that China's foreign trade data for the first three quarters was released recently. From the perspective of imports, from January to September, China imported nearly US$2 trillion, an increase of 32.6% year-on-year, and the scale hit a record high. From an international perspective, according to the latest WTO data, China's import international market share in the first half of the year increased by 0.7 percentage points to 12% year-on-year, contributing to 15% of the global import increase.