Seafood traders have reasons to be optimistic about the Chinese market

Seafood suppliers are set to benefit from shifts in Chinese dietary trends toward more healthy proteins, as well as changes to the country’s foodservice sector, according to a new report from Utrecht, Netherlands-based Rabobank on China’s meat protein market.Titled “New Consumption Trends in China Offer Opportunities for Animal Proteins,” the report outlines why seafood traders, who have been gloomy recently about soft demand in China caused by weak economic growth and consumer sentiment, have cause to be more optimistic about the near future.That optimism is mainly due to Chinese consumers catching on to a global healthy eating trend, which has seen them turn from red meat toward products including seafood, according to the report.Leading that trend in China are value-seeking urbanites, who caused China's per capita seafood consumption rate to rise an average of 4.4 percent annually between 2013 and 2023, while during the same time frame, consumption of pork rose only 0.3 percent ...