Mark Godfrey is an Irish journalist covering the agriculture and fisheries sectors in Asia, with a focus on China. Proficient in Mandarin, he has frequently traveled across China's fisheries and aquaculture regions and learned the inner workings of China's corporate world during a nearly three-year stint at the Financial Times' “China Confidential” publication. He has also reported widely across Southeast Asia and the former Soviet Union. He has educational certificates in agriculture and food science, as well as Mandarin.
Author Archive
Two cities straddling the Amur River, which marks the international border between China and Russia, have signed an agreement to cooperate on fisheries development.
Officials from Fuyuan, part of the Jiamusi municipality in China’s Heilongjiang province, signed an agreement with the local government of Khabarovsk, committing the two sides to cooperating on fishery production and processing in China’s northeast corner and in areas
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China is tapping into Pakistan as an alternative seafood supplier, with tensions ramping up between it and its primary trading partners.
On 1 June, an air shipment of fresh mullet from Pakistan arrived in Kashgar, a city in China’s Xinjiang region, according to China Daily. The mullet was imported by Xinjiang Huizhou Import and Export Trading Co., which distributes seafood out of the Kashgar Comprehensive Bonded Zone Cross-border
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an alert in May 2024 upon the discovery of excessive levels of chloramphenicol – an antibiotic banned by China that is typically used to treat bacterial infections – in imported tilapia produced by Hainan Eternal Springs Fisheries Co.
The alert comes as China’s tilapia sector is already facing such headwinds as low export demand and higher input costs.
Chinese tilapia
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The rightward tilt of the European Parliament could negatively impact European fisheries, according to Europêche Managing Director Daniel Voces de Onaíndi.
The European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy was an issue of contention in the 10 June E.U. election, which resulted in a rightward swing in the selection of 720 members of the European Parliament.
The parties that fared best in the election are generally in favor of more
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A coalition of seven labor unions in Indonesia and Taiwan is imploring both countries’ authorities to reach an agreement that ensures the rights of Indonesian migrant fishers recruited to work on Taiwanese fishing vessels.
The Coalition for the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Fishers in Taiwanese Fishing Vessels, which claims to represent more than 30,000 fishers globally, is aiming to further this cause through a more unified
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