Russian pollock export structure changes, Chinese market turns to deep-processed products

Published 2025년 5월 22일

Tridge summary

In 2023, Russia's exports of frozen and processed pollock to China fell by 12% to 483,000 tons due to reduced demand from Chinese processing companies facing rising labor costs and competition from Southeast Asia. Despite this decline, Russia has significantly increased its exports of deep-processed pollock products to China, achieving a 20-fold increase over four years, though the sustainability of this trend is uncertain. Additionally, Russia aims to expand its market for frozen haddock roe in China, targeting an annual export of 5,000 tons, as it seeks to establish a stable consumer base amid declining prices and weak demand in traditional markets like Japan and South Korea.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

According to data from the Russian Pollock Association (PCA), Russia's exports of frozen and processed pollock to China in 2023 fell by 12% year-on-year to 483,000 tons. This trend reflects the weakening demand for raw fish by Chinese processing companies, and also reveals that China's position as a global seafood processing center is shaking. PCA Chairman Alexi Buglak pointed out that the reasons for the decline in processing demand include: China's labor costs continue to rise, and its competitiveness has declined compared with Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, India and Indonesia; coupled with sanctions pressure, weak terminal market prices and other multiple factors, Chinese processing companies find it difficult to maintain the traditional model. At the same time, Russia is rapidly filling the gap brought about by this change. In the past four years, exports of deep-processed pollock products to China have increased 20 times, with 25,000 tons of pollock fillets and ...

Source: Foodmate