QINGDAO, China -- China’s total seafood imports were around 5.6 million metric tons in 2016, said the top executive with the China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance (CAPPMA).
Speaking during the Sustainable Seafood Forum, held on Oct. 31, the day before the China Fisheries & Seafood Expo, Cui He, the head of CAPPMA, said around 1.6m of this is smuggled into the country, not legally imported.
Around 1m metric tons comes through Vietnam, he said. It’s an open secret in the seafood sector that seafood is shipped to Haiphong, a port in the north of Vietnam, then smuggled across the Chinese border, to avoid import duties and sales tax. Also, seafood is smuggled into China via Hong Kong.
According to Cui, new routes are opening up, such as shrimp from India being smuggled into China via the border with the country’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in the northwest...