(IntraFish) Around 150 new surimi seafood processors opened in China last year, China’s largest surimi producer said.
Although the size of the new processors is not known, the figure offers a glimpse into China’s mushrooming surimi production and consumption.
The statistic was shared by Longsheng Aquatic Products in a presentation at the 12 surimi forum in Oregon on May 8.
Even though many of these processors could be relatively small, it is still a “shocking number,” Pascal Guenneugues, director of Future Seafood Consulting, told IntraFish.
Figures compiled by Guenneugues from industry contacts estimate that China’s surimi consumption is now at around 150,000 metric tons. Production and import figures are very hard to get by, Guenneugues said, but the country is -- very roughly -- estimated to produce around 120,000 to 130,000 metric tons, of which exports have now fallen to less than 60,000 metric tons.
This would suggest the country imports maybe around 80,000 - 90,000 metric tons of surimi.
Guenneugues has long charted the growing role of China on the global surimi market, not least linking rising surimi base prices to Chinese demand.
“The increasing number of factories and strong demand of raw material for [the Chinese] domestic market has resulted in a price increase of more than 20 percent in the second half of 2011,” Guenneugues said in his presentation at the industry forum. “Chinese imports of surimi from neighboring countries particularly Vietnam is increasing rapidly, resulting in [a] price increase in Asia for low grade surimi.”
China mainly consumes surimi made from tropical seawater fish, but the country is exploring the potential of production from freshwater fish, Guenneugues said.
“As the potential for increasing production from sea fish is limited, China surimi producers have been developing production of surimi from fresh water fish and particularly carp,” he said in his presentation. “This production is estimated today around 30,000 metric tons and growing quickly to respond to the domestic demand for more surimi raw material.”