Guangdong, China-based Guangdong Mingji Aquatic Products is doubling its catfish production capacity with the aim of growing its exports.
Mingji, which markets itself as “One of China’s Top Ten Grill Fish Brands,” also wants to try selling to regional consumers through cross-border e-commerce, according to Guangdong Mingji Aquatic Products Chairman He Xuelor.
Xuelor said his company is building a new factory to be completed by the end of 2024 that will allow the firm to double production capacity to 72,000 metric tons (MT) per year.
“In addition to keeping our existing domestic market share, we must continue to explore overseas markets [and] seek new market opportunities and partners by participating in international trade exhibitions, establishing overseas sales networks and conducting market research,” Xuelor told the Farmer’s Daily, a publication of the Community Party-published People’s Daily.
Mingji has aquaculture, processing, and feed production subsidiaries, as well as 36,000 MT of processing capacity. The firm produces catfish, tilapia, grass carp, longnose catfish, red drum, sea bass, and snakehead.
In addition to shipping fillets to the E.U. and U.S., the company sells pre-grilled fillets to European and U.S. clients, as well as exports to countries in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), an Asia-centric free trade bloc. Mingqi also imports pangasius from Vietnam for processing into semi-processed products for catering clients and produces ready-to-eat products for domestic consumer-facing sales.
China’s government has come to look anew at exports as an engine of growth, particularly with the recent depreciation of the country’s currency and soft consumer demand in the face of a slide in real estate prices and local government debt crises. For their part, E.U. and U.S. officials are concerned that China, faced with price deflation, will flood global markets with cheap products.
