Australian seafood has three treasures: abalone, lobster and tuna. Tuna has been tepid this year, lobsters have recently been stuck in China's neck, then today's Australian sea industry is left with abalone with "topwind" price increases, plus a dark horse salmon that has broken out of the siege.
Australia's tuna, mainly southern bluefin tuna, because of the good geographical location, Australia's bluefin tuna resources, and from the International Tuna Resources Management Committee to obtain a high fishing quota, coupled with a large area suitable for captive tuna natural sea, Australians will catch small-size bluefin tuna through artificial fattening, and then sold to Japan, achieving a wave of others are difficult to imitate the riot operation.
Although bluefin tuna is the high-end of high-end seafood, Japan, as the world's main market, has been in an irreversible recession, there are only a few gourmets, and young people have not been very interested in this high-priced seafood, that is to say, the rising channel of Japan's old bluefin tuna market has basically been blocked. Of course, there are other markets that can be developed, but the price is certainly not as beautiful as in Japan.
Except for the tuna, which earns Japanese money, the remaining two treasures of abalone and lobster are all Chinese money. In particular, the greatest of the three treasures, the Australian rock lobster.
Image source: Zhiyu
Australian rock lobster "trace" in China is also more than ten years old. China also produces sea lobsters, such as the famous splendid lobster, because it was caught scarce very early, so the price was also high early. In contrast, in Australia, because of the small number of shrimp people, although the local indigenous people have a long tradition of catching lobsters, the production has always been considerable. In the 1970s and 1980s, large quantities of Australian lobsters were made into frozen lobsters or canned lobster tails and exported to North America.
This "loss-making business" of selling dead lobsters was decisively terminated after it was developed in the Chinese market. Australian rock lobster is definitely tailor-made for the Chinese market. Before it was cooked, it was already full of red, coupled with the early days of Entering China, there were a lot of more than ten or twenty pounds of large-size lobsters, which really amazed China's high-end consumer market, and the price was even higher year after year, and soon became the seafood top brand of high-end hotels and catering clubs in China's coastal areas, the hotel did not have Australian lobster, and the front was embarrassed by the price "big" word.
Not many years later, Australia's lobster treasure won the title of "Lobster Hermès" in the Chinese market, and it is the only one in the world, so in recent years, Australia has been the national shrimp (more than 90%), dumped on the Chinese market.
It is said that it is not good to put eggs in one basket, so the practice of selling lobsters to China is risky. But no one expected that after the outbreak of the global epidemic, Australia, which has been selling lobsters to China, has been "sheltered" because of its "willfulness", because the Chinese market has become the only supermarket in the world that is immune to the epidemic.
It's just that Australian politicians are not ordinary people, holding up the "golden rice bowl" in their hands, and smashing their own feet really make them unable to understand and learn. In October this year, the Australian lobster, which has been sheltered by the Chinese market, was finally blocked by the Chinese customs. Looking at the carnival season of the Chinese market - the Spring Festival is in front of you, if you miss this wave, it is equivalent to losing the year-end bonus, how can this be good, how can the Spring Festival of Chinese be without Australian lobsters!
Lobsters can only be temporarily raised in the pool waiting for the "lifting of the ban"
For Australian politicians, business is business, politics is politics, then for China, whether there is an Australian lobster, the Spring Festival is still the same.
Lobsters are "banned", and Australia is glad that there are abalone. Because the lobster has very high requirements for transportation time, generally can not exceed 48 hours, if there is no green channel, according to the current customs clearance rhythm, basically can only be blocked in the customs and so on. Fortunately, abalone is more vigorous than lobster, so it can withstand the toss of queuing.
Compared with lobster, Australia's abalone business is not large, but as a hard currency in China's high-end seafood market, coupled with China's high-end seafood market has long been effectively restored, Australian abalone has ushered in a wave of price increases in the Chinese market.
The origin of Australian abalone in China is similar to that of Australian lobster. Our narrow coastline was also once rich in abalone, because abalone lives in the offshore, very easy to catch, coupled with our long tradition of eating abalone, wild abalone resources are depleted very early, in ancient China there is a thousand gold to buy a head of abalone (a pound of dried abalone) said. Although China is already the number one country in the world's abalone farming, with a production of about 85% of the world's total production, Australia's abalone is large and wild sea fishing, which perfectly caters to Chinese traditions and is difficult to think of.
Abalone temporary pond
Therefore, Australia also did not hesitate to export most of its wild abalone to the Chinese market. Although the impact on aquatic products has not subsided this year due to the epidemic, the Chinese high-end consumer market, which is mainly attacked by Australian abalone, seems to be an exception.
According to China's customs data, in October this year, China imported a total of 120.187 tons of abalone, with a value of 43.69 million yuan, a decrease of 79 tons or 65% compared with the import volume in September this year (199.937 tons), but the import value of September (40.57 million yuan) increased by 7%.
Imports fell by 65 per cent, while imports rose by 7 per cent. That is to say, the recent domestic imported abalone price is going to rise!
According to customs data, Australian abalone imports in October this year had 98.63 tons, accounting for 82%; New Zealand's imports were 14.62 tons, accounting for 12%; followed by South Africa, with imports of 6.02 tons, accounting for 5%. Obviously, the main force of this price increase in imported abalone is Australia.
The position of Australian aquatic products in the Chinese market is indeed irreplaceable, and there is no Australian lobster for the time being, so take abalone to fill it. Australia's abalone exporters naturally look at China's peak season market at the end of the year, although the import of aquatic products has been hindered to a certain extent due to inspection and quarantine upgrades, but the recovery of the high-end consumer market will not be greatly affected, but will be because of the absence of lobsters and imports can not keep up, resulting in price increases. This kind of market game, Australian aquatic products dealers play pure fire, think of the Spring Festival stall that year, Chinese importers can only bid each other to get lobsters from their hands.
In addition to abalone, this year's Australian salmon has made a grand debut in China, and after October this year, it successfully replaced Chile as the second largest source of salmon in China.
This year is destined to be the year of the counterattack of Australian salmon. In the first three quarters of this year, when china's salmon import market shrank by 40%, Australian salmon imports tripled. From January to September this year, Australia exported nearly 6,400 tons of chilled salmon to China, up 284% from 1,667 tons in the same period last year, approaching the second-place Chile (6,830 tons).
According to the import data of the customs in October, China's Australian salmon imports are 969.875 tons, while Chile is 424.27 tons, according to this data, then Australia is a proper replacement for Chile and has become the second source of salmon imports in China. Australian salmon is not well-known, mainly because the scale of breeding is not large, mainly for the supply of the domestic market. After the domestic market shrank due to the epidemic this year, Australian salmon producers found that salmon sold better in China.
I have to say that China really has a "fondness" for Australia's agricultural products, coupled with the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement signed in 2015, Australia's seafood is really a combination of time and place, And Australia's lobster originally did not have the worries of the Boston lobster in the United States. As the lobster trade was pressed the pause button, australia's seafood ran around, but to no avail.
While China's high-end market is still there and China's Spring Festival is just around the corner, there's nothing they can do about it. Some people may say that China's high-end seafood market will not disappear because of the Australian government's "death" rhythm, many people just shout on the slogan, but may not be able to afford to consume, but the real situation will be what it will be, who knows. (End)
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