New Covid-19 cases in China strike blow to salmon industry

Audio 01:49

By: Claire Fages Follow

Traces of Covid-19 on a cutting board of imported salmon, in a wholesale market in Beijing, it was enough for China to stop buying these fish abroad. The Norwegian and Chilean salmon giants are already affected.

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Will imported salmon be the scapegoat of the Chinese authorities, faced with the resurgence of cases of Covid-19 in Beijing? No scientific data establishes that a fish can carry the virus. But the salmon has already disappeared from supermarket stalls in China, since traces of Covid-19 were found on a cutting board in the gigantic Xifandi market, south of the capital. It was used to prepare a salmon from Europe.

China's promising market has closed

The CEO of Bakkafrost, one of the Norwegian salmon giants, confirmed to Undercurrent , a seafood magazine, that his company no longer ships salmon to China. The market has closed, he said, since authorities began storing imported salmon in cold stores for testing.

Salmon giant stock market dive Mowi

Since the beginning of the week, the action of companies in the sector has been heckled on the stock market. In Oslo, the world's number one salmon, the Norwegian Mowi, lost 6%. Even Agri Joyvio, the Chinese group that acquired the Chilean salmon producer Australis Seafoods last summer, plunged 5%.

Chinese imports of salmon, however, are not yet very heavy. 80,000 tonnes last year, 4% of world imports in volume, 6% in value. But it was a rapidly growing outlet. Middle-class Chinese want to eat more fish and a little less meat. Norwegian salmon exports to China doubled last year.

Second blow for the sector

But the first wave of coronavirus in China had dealt this trade a first blow. Minus 30% between January and the end of April. Salmon exporters expected to catch up for the rest of the year. But Chinese consumers could turn away from imported salmon on a lasting basis, for fear, even unfounded, of catching the virus.

Danger of inflation if mistrust spreads to imported meat

Much greater danger to Chinese food security: if the Chinese turn away from imported meat, also questioned by the Chinese authorities. China could then be faced with inflation that is difficult to control, particularly pork prices. The country has not yet reconstituted its farms decimated by African swine fever.

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