In recent years, the eel industry in China has been restricted by technical barriers to trade in Japan and other countries, affected by events such as toxic jiaozi and melamine, and impacted by the international financial crisis. Exports have declined for four consecutive years, and the industry is struggling. It is reported that in 2004, China exported nearly 1 10000 tons of eel products (equivalent to live eels, the same below), earning 860 million US dollars in foreign exchange; In 2005, the export volume dropped to 82,000 tons, and the exchange rate dropped to 750 million dollars. In 2006, the export volume increased to 88,000 tons, but the exchange rate dropped to 740 million dollars. In 2007, the export volume dropped to 86,000 tons, and the exchange rate dropped to 680 million dollars. In 2008, the export volume was only 60,000 tons, and the exchange amount was less than 560 million dollars, which was the lowest in the past 20 years. Japanese is the main market for eels in China. In 2004, Japanese imported 93,000 tons of eel products from China, accounting for 84.6% of the market. In 2008, this figure dropped to 35,000 tons, and its market share dropped to 58.3%, only 37.6% four years ago. In 2009, European eels were included in the protection scope of the Washington Convention, and the export of China eels will be further restricted. According to related reports, after the Spring Festival this year, the export volume and price of roasted eel and live eel in Guangdong Province decreased by more than 30% year-on-year. The situation in Fujian and Jiangxi provinces is even worse. Due to the cancellation of the European eel export tax rebate policy, the export has completely stopped and a large number of eels are under pressure. At present, eel farmers have lost money for two or three years, most eel processing and feed production enterprises have stopped production, and the whole industry has encountered unprecedented difficulties. In order to tide over the difficulties and maintain the sustainable development of eel industry, eel breeding and processing enterprises in Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi are actively looking for countermeasures.
The first is to try to break the Japanese market barriers. Domestic units engaged in eel breeding production, processing and distribution have established and improved a set of quality and safety guarantee system based on strict technical specifications, starting from the source and supervising the whole process. At present, the eel industry in China has been able to cope with Japan's strict "positive list system", and the roasted eels exported to Japan have not had quality problems for more than a year. While ensuring the quality of products, we cooperated with Japanese traders and invited mainstream Japanese media to China for on-the-spot shooting and truthful reporting, which achieved certain results. China roasted eel sales in Japanese supermarkets and mass market stores are gradually picking up.
Experts in the industry believe that China eel industry urgently needs to build its own eel brand. At present, the product standards used in China are Japanese, and the taste of the products is also Japanese, which has no characteristics of its own products at all. Because there is no brand, the price of products in the Japanese market is even only 1/4 of the price of similar products in Japan, and the image in the eyes of consumers is getting worse and worse. Without a brand, it is easy for individual unfavorable factors to affect the sales of China eels in the whole Japanese market. To build eel brands, we must first build regional brands, such as "China Eel", "Shunde Eel" and "Fujian Eel". The second is to cultivate enterprises' own brands, such as the recently established "Dragon Star" and "Jiannong".
Secondly, we should strengthen the development of international markets outside Japan. Fujian's roasted eel exports account for about half of the country's total, and most of them are sold to Japan. Due to the weak Japanese market, Juquan Food Company, a leading enterprise in Changle City, has vigorously expanded its international living space and implemented multilateral trade. Last year, although the total export volume of roasted eel in China decreased by more than 40% year-on-year, Juquan Company still exported more than 3,000 tons, of which 2/3 were sold to Europe and America. At present, Fujian eels have opened up new markets in Europe, the United States, South Korea and the Philippines, and their dependence on the Japanese market has been greatly reduced. Similarly, Guangdong Shunde Longchang Roasted Eel Company changed the single channel of selling eels to Japan in the past, and began to explore the eel market in the United States, Russia and Southeast Asia last year, which has achieved initial results.
Last year, the company exported roast eel 1.700 tons, of which Japan only accounted for about 300 tons, and more than 80% were in markets outside Japan.
People in the industry agree that the most important thing at present is to vigorously explore the domestic eel market. It can be said that most people in China have never eaten eels, and they don't know enough about eel nutrition knowledge. There is even a prejudice that "eel has high cholesterol and fat content, which is not conducive to health", so it is very difficult to develop the domestic eel market. Relevant departments should support processing trade enterprises to vigorously develop the domestic eel market and support industry associations to promote high-quality eel products in an all-round way. For example, in general supermarkets in some big cities, activities similar to the eel festival are carried out with reference to Japanese practices to publicize eel nutrition knowledge and eel culture, so that more people can be familiar with eel and understand its production and processing process. It is necessary to develop new eel products that meet the consumption habits of Chinese people and improve the cooking skills of eels, so that eels and their products with high nutritional value can first be recognized by high-end consumer groups in economically developed areas.
In June 2008, the first China Minxi Eel Culture Festival and Eel Cooking Competition sponsored by Longyan Eel Industry Association was held in Changting County. Guan Jing, Secretary-General of the Eel Industry Working Committee of China Fisheries Association, delivered a speech, saying that Changting is the starting point of the Long March, and it is very meaningful to hold an eel culture festival here, which will also become a new starting point for the promotion of eel culture and eel cooking skills in China. At the beginning of this year, Guangdong took the opportunity that Shunde was awarded the "Hometown of Eels in China" and held a series of large-scale promotion activities in big cities such as Beijing and Shenzhen to promote Shunde eel brand in the domestic market.
Experts believe that the development of eel products should pay attention to diversification, not only to meet the needs of different markets such as Japan, Europe, America and Russia, but also to develop products with distinctive tastes in eight major cuisines in the domestic market; According to the different needs of men, women and children, develop a series of products such as fitness, beauty, health care and intelligence. Packaging specifications and sizes should be designed according to the needs of tourism, gifts and other markets to form a diversified product pattern.
At present, the main difficulty in expanding domestic demand is that enterprises have limited bearing capacity and must be supported by national policies. For example, the state has a tax rebate policy for roasted eel exports, but no support policy for domestic sales. In recent years, the selling price of eel products in the domestic market is lower than the cost, which is the bottleneck restricting the further development of the domestic market.