Tasmania boosts salmon exports to China

AUSTRALIA’S salmon farmers are increasing their exports to China to meet growing middle-class demand for premium products, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.

Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Tasmania last year and was seen on Chinese state television lunching on local salmon. Shortly afterwards, Tasmania’s biggest salmon producer, Tassal, signed a deal with a supplier to IKEA in China to supply its smoked salmon to stores there.

Tassal will send 20 per cent of its smoked products to China for the first time, with the order likely to multiply in coming years, said Mark Ryan, chief executive of Tassal Group.

Philip Wiese, deputy chief executive at Huon Aquaculture, the state’s second largest farmer, said Chinese food companies ‘think aquaculture is the way of the future as a protein source’.

He said Huon is in talks with several Chinese distributors and retailers, and expects a supply deal in the next 12 months.

Australia’s free trade agreement with China, struck last year but yet to be ratified by parliament, would eliminate a 12 per cent tariff on salmon sold to China, said the WSJ.

A similar deal struck by New Zealand in 2008 saw its seafood exports to China quadruple over four years to A$402 million. The Tasmanian state government has thrown its weight behind the industry and since 2011 leases for must be approved by government.