Vice Minister Niu Dun urges transformation, upgrading in fishery development
DATE:2013-11-08 SOURCE:Information Office, MOA
China will upgrade international cooperation in fishery and promote the transformation of fishery development. MOA Vice Minister Niu Dun made the call at China Fisheries & Seafood Expo 2013, held from Oct. 5th to 7th in Dalian of Liaoning Province.
In his opening speech, Niu stressed that fishery development should make the best of both domestic and international markets, enhance resource utilization rate and achieve sustainable development.
Niu pointed out that as a major fishery producer and trader, China has kept steady growth in import and export of aquatic products. The export value of China has topped the world for 11 straight years.
"Foreign trade grew rapidly in the past three quarters this year. The trade value registered 20.9 billion US dollars,with import and export values stood at 6.4 billion US dollars and 14.5billion US dollars respectively," Niu said.
The trade growth in aquatic products greatly boosted the efficiency of fishery resource allocation in China, enriched domestic food supply, and increased income of fish men and fish farmers. Moreover, fishery provides large quantity of high quality animal protein, and accordingly contributes to improving food security and nutrition world wide.
Niu called for fishery development to be more open and market-oriented, to facilitate the shift of its growth pattern, and to improve its comprehensive productivity, resilience and international competitiveness.
While visiting the Expo, Niu told overseas exhibitors that China welcomes and encourages foreign fishery enterprises to introduce quality aquatic-products into Chinese market, and have in-depth cooperation with domestic enterprises. By doing so, we are jointly building a sustainable global market of aquatic-products. Meanwhile, China would learn from other countries about new concepts on fishery development and fishery resources conservation, share and introduce state-of-art processing technologies and management practices.
Niu also urged domestic exhibitors to further promote modern fishery development and industry upgrading, and seize the opportunities posed by evolving global backdrop.
The Expo is the largest seafood show in Asia and the second of its kind in the world. This year marks the 18th anniversary of the Expo.
It is organized by the MOA Agricultural Trade Promotion Center (ATPC) and the Specialized Sub-Council of Agriculture of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), and co-organized by the US Sea Fare Expositions Inc.
The Expo serves as a platform for showcasing, communication and cooperation in fishery sector. More than 1,000 exhibitors from 39 countries and 20,000 visitors from over 80 countries participated the Expo.