The Chinese may not have abandoned communism but they may soon become smoked-salmon socialists, if an Irish Sea Fisheries Board trade delegation, which arrived in Beijing yesterday, succeeds in opening the growing Chinese seafood market.
The trade mission, headed by the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, is the largest ever Irish mission to visit China, the largest ever organised by the Fisheries Board, and the first of any kind led by a minister to China in over three years.
It will target the luxury end of the market, with proposals to airfreight smoked salmon, fresh salmon, lobsters, oysters, crayfish and freshwater eels into Hong Kong, Beijing and other fast-developing eastern cities.
"The consumption of seafood there [China] has doubled since 1990 and Ireland now has an opportunity to develop a substantial export market for fish and seafood products," Dr Woods said before leaving Dublin.
The Government representatives include Mr Pat Keogh, chief executive of Bord Iascaigh Mhara, who said recently the Far East in general is now a big market for Irish seafood, as over £30 million of Irish seafood is exported there already, mainly to Japan and South Korea.
Ireland hopes this year to export £1 million worth of seafood into China - which accounts for one fifth of the world's seafood consumption - compared to £0.6 million in 1996. Most is sent through indirect routes, such as Hong Kong. Ireland exports annually £252 million worth of seafood world-wide.
The benefit of targeting the upper end of the China market is twofold: the Chinese fish industry has not developed luxury outlets and fresh salmon and shellfish can nowadays be sent by air in boxes of seaweed to any destination in the world. Also, though prawns, shrimps and scallops are popular all over China, smoked salmon and oysters are virtually unknown quantities. Smoked salmon from Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Australia is available only in shops catering for foreigners in the major cities.
Dr Woods hopes to formalise the new level of fish trade with China through a government-endorsed agreement with the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, allowing Irish exporters to send their products directly to Beijing. During his seven-day visit, Dr Woods will meet Vice-Minister for Agriculture with Responsibility for Fisheries, Mr Bai Zhijian, and travel to the major sea port of Dalian.
Mr Bai said last week that by the end of 2000, the total import and export trade volume of fish in China would reach $400 billion, and by the end of the century tariffs would be cut to the average for developing countries. The Chinese fisheries market is also opening up fast to the outside world, with opportunities for economic and technological co-operation with other countries, he said.
"Securing the Chinese government-endorsed overseas trading status is my primary objective in the interests of Irish exporters," Dr Woods said.
China single-handedly acc ounted for an increase of 2.9 million tonnes to 113 million tonnes in worldwide fish consumption in 1996, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation. China is a major world fish producer, with a catch of 27.3 million tonnes in 1996. More than 50 per cent comes from a rapidly-expanding inland aquaculture industry.
The Irish delegation, with eight government members and 19 representatives of the mackerel, shellfish and salmon industries, will attend the China Seafood and Fisheries Exhibition in Beijing this week which has attracted 2,000 business executives from 46 countries.
