Salmon back on shelves, yet market recovery takes time

Some fresh salmon products are returning to the shelves after health authorities clarified that there is no evidence suggesting salmon is a direct host or intermediate carrier of the virus which causes COVID-19. However, insiders said that given public confidence in salmon products has taken a knock after the outbreak of the coronavirus at Xinfadi wholesale market in Beijing’s Fengtai district, it will take at least another three months for the market to return to normal.

Hema Fresh, an online-to-offline Chinese retail supermarket under the Alibaba Group, is offering fresh salmon products in stores in Chengdu, Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, the Global Times learned.

To assure consumers, salmon imported from Chile to Shuangliu Market Supervision Authority in Chengdu have been given throat swab tests and nucleic acid tests on June 29, and both proved negative. They were then sent on to the stores, Agri-Joyvio, a Chinese seafood firm that provides the salmon for Hema Fresh, told the Global Times in a statement on Thursday.

The discovery of the coronavirus on a cutting board where imported salmon had been processed at Xinfadi market in June led to a suspension of sales of fresh salmon in the city and beyond.

Shi Guoqing, deputy director of the Emergency Center of the China Center for Disease Control, told a press conference on June 16 that there is no evidence that salmon is the host or an intermediate carrier of the novel coronavirus.

Following the clarification, businesses and traders are hopeful of a market recovery.

Norwegian salmon farmers are following strict measures to limit the spread of COVID-19, the Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC) said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Thursday.

“We remain confident about the market recovery and outlook and expect exports to resume when the market demand returns,” said the NSC.