April 9, 2013 — A slowdown in luxury spending as well as imports facilitated by a free trade pact with southeast Asia have squeezed China’s grouper farmers. Production has outstripped demand with daily sales down 300,000 kilograms nationwide according to data published by Shuichan Pindao, a seafood consumption research agency based in Beijing.
Grouper prices in 2012, even in the Spring Festival, sank to the lowest on record, a slump blamed on a frugality campaign pursued by China’s new leadership as proof of its anti-corruption credentials. Demand for blue grouper, a favorite of official banquet tables in China, has fallen hardest: a 500 gram to 650 gram sized blue grouper costs CNY 30 (USD 4.8, EUR 3.70) per 500 gram at wholesale, and 1000 gram to 1500 gram sized costs only CNY 30 per 500 grams.
“The sales price is even lower than its cost price,” claimed Shuichan Pindao. Citing a survey of fish markets nationwide, Shuichan Pindao noted that 500 gram to 650 gram tiger groupers cost CNY 45 (USD 7, EUR 6) to CNY 46 (USD 7.4, EUR 5.7) per 500 grams in late March, whereas 1 kilogram-plus sized spotted grouper sold for CNY 100 (USD 16, EUR 12) per 500 grams.
Those prices correspond with fish markets in Beijing, which sell farmed grouper for prices equivalent to farmed species like seabass and yellow croaker. Tax-free imports of grouper from Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries are imported in China, reported Shuichan Pindao, pointed to the ASEAN–China Free Trade Area (ACFTA), a free trade area with the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in force since 2010.