Further constraints hitting Russian and global exports of seafood to China

China has futher tightened regulations for exporters of seafood to PRC under the excuse of preventing COVID-19 from infiltrating into the country, reports Megafishnet.com.

Apart from other exporting countries, the tightening of control and supply regime to China will also affect producers in the North and North-West of Russia because almost all exports of cod and haddock from Murmansk-led Northern Fisheries go through Norway and the Netherlands, where the health certificates are issued for the shipped fish destination countries, China inclusive.

Norway

According to a Russian partner in Norway, in late November Chinese authorities have informed the Norwegians about the new requirements for the health certificates for exporting seafood to China, and that the list of approved establishments will have to be expanded.

The new requirements will apply from the New Year. The Norwegian Seafood Council has had a meeting with the Norwegian Food Safety Authority on the issue, and the exporters are now working to clarify how the new requirements will be interpreted and how these can be followed up in an easy way.

The information currently available on new requirements for the certificate indicates, among other things, that all fish farms, fishing boats, warehouses and reefer vessels must be listed on the certificate.

New requirements for the listing stipulate that all fishing boats, warehouses and reefer vessels must be listed as approved establishments.

In addition, production volume and exports to China in the previous year shall be provided for all establishments and vessels.

Seafood that is landed in Norway from boats of other countries (such as Russia or the UK) cannot be exported to China, unless these boats are listed in China as approved facilities, too.

The Netherlands

Meanwhile, Daalimpex, one of the largest fish exporters in Holland, has informed their Russian partners that the Chinese sanitary authorities will be doing an audit of the facilities in the Netherlands with the date of the audit still unknown as per late November.

Meanwhile Daalimpex has received a formal notice from China (via the Dutch authorities) that the company’s Velsen coldstore is suspended from issuing Dutch Health Certificates as of November 19th.

This means that containers loaded in Velsen with a Dutch export HC on November 18th or earlier can still proceed to China.

Daalimpex has notified the Russians that as from the same date (November 19th) it will stop issuing reexport catch certificates to China, since the company is mentioned in China’s formal notice.

Russian Far East

In the early autumn of 2020, several fishing companies from the Ruissian Far East began to experience difficulties with the supply of products to China, because, according to the Chinese side, coronavirus was allegedly detected on the packaging of the Russian products.

In the above incident a Russian reefer, having passed all the necessary checks in the Chinese port of Qingdao, unloaded about two thousand tons of fish, mainly pollock of the Norebo Holding, to the local coldstore. A few days later, two warehouse movers were found to have contracted coronavirus, claimed the Chinese.

China accounts for 60% of Russian fish exports. Accordingly, the situation with seafood export to China is of great concern to the Russian fishermen.

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