Russia regains leadership in the Chinese fish market
Russia became the largest supplier of fish products to China in 2025 and retained its position in the first quarter of 2026. Previously, Ecuador was in the lead, which has now moved to second place. This was reported to Izvestia by the All-Russian Association of Fisheries Enterprises, Entrepreneurs and Exporters (VARPE), which conducted a market study, citing data from the ITC Trade Map.
In 2025, Russia exported fish products worth $3.42 billion to China, increasing its share in the country's fish imports to 14.4%. Ecuador, which retained the title of the largest seafood supplier to China for four years in a row, dropped to second place with a share of 13.7% ($3.25 billion). In the first quarter of 2026, Russian fishermen strengthened their positions by supplying almost $1.1 billion worth of fish products to China. Russia's share of Chinese imports increased from 13.8% to 16.2%, while Ecuador's decreased from 14.6% to 14%.
"China is the largest importer of Russian fish and has always been one of the main strategic partners for Russian fishermen. For fifteen years— from 2005 to 2020, Russia was a leader in seafood supplies to China. In 2021, Ecuador took the palm, which by that time had become the world's largest producer of shrimp. By the way, this Latin American country has created the shrimp market in China from scratch, increasing its share in Chinese imports from 0.1% to more than 13% in ten years," German Zverev, president of VARPE, explained the dynamics to Izvestia.
He recalled that China remains both a "global fish processing factory" and a global center of luxury consumption, which makes it interesting for all fishing powers. China's GDP per capita has increased 27-fold in 35 years, from $991 in 1990 to $27,105 in 2025. A growing China has discovered premium seafood.
"Russia became the first country to open premium seafood to the Chinese, and actually created a live crab market there from scratch. Today, China is the world's largest consumer of these products. Later, Ecuador and Norway followed our path. Simultaneously with the development of domestic consumption of Russian fish products, we have been developing raw material exports to processing plants in China, such as frozen pollock, cod, salmon, etc. This policy has allowed Russia to maintain its leadership in the Chinese market for many years. This strategy has also helped bring it back — we are increasing exports of frozen pollock, herring, cod for processing, live crab, surimi, and other highly processed products for domestic consumption. At the same time, we are developing new supply lines, for example, halibut and pollock caviar. As the analysis conducted by VARPE in 2024 showed, the potential for exports to China has not been exhausted — by 2030, supplies may grow by 1.7 times, to almost $4.88 billion," the head of VARPE notes.
It is noted that China, along with the United States, are the world's largest importers of fish products. China has strengthened its position as a global processing center after joining the WTO. Over the past period, Chinese fishing has grown 13 times, from $1.8 billion to $23.7 billion.
On the same day, Russian Leader Vladimir Putin, during his official visit to China on May 20, began talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping as part of a tea party between the two leaders. The contacts are held behind closed doors and in a narrow format. Only four members of the delegations from each side are present at the meeting.
As part of the leaders' negotiations, 21 agreements were signed, including a Statement on strengthening comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation. At the same time, Putin announced that the agreements between Moscow and Beijing were aimed at the economy. Xi Jinping said that the trade exchange between the two countries has exceeded the $200 billion mark for the third year in a row.
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