The 27th edition of China Fisheries & Seafood Expo, which took place 30 October to 1 November, 2024 in Qingdao, China joined more than 42 000 seafood professionals and united more than 1600 companies from 51 countries.

For the first time in its history, the Russian pavilion covered an area of 1,500 square meters presenting more than 50 companies ranging from catching and processing, equipment manufacturers, fish oil and fishmeal suppliers, logistics service providers, as well as regional stands of Russian local entities.

The exhibition has started from the official tour hosted by local authorities of Shandong province and the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, the organizer of the event. Members of the delegation headed by Mr. Wang Lejun, Chief Animal Husbandry Officer, visited Russian pavilion and tasted variety of dishes made from Russian pollock roe and snow crab.

All treasures of the Russian seas on display

The Russian exposition was mostly represented by companies specialized in catching and processing of fish and seafood: North-West Fishing Consortium, Russian Fishery Company, Yuzhno-Kurilsky Fish Factory, Russian Crab, Lenin Fishing Collective, Antey Group, Dalryba, Sirius, Vikta, Pacific Fish Resources, Vostok-1, Murman, Tymlatsky Fish Factory, Kamchatskiy Meridian, Altai Fish, FOR Group, Aurora+ (Nord Pilgrim), Sigma Marine Technology, K-Flot and others. Fishery companies from Khabarovsk Territory once again were presented in joint stand of Krairybakkolkhozsoyuz. Dobroflot, Kurilskiye Ostrova, Rishon became the newcomers this year and joined the exposition of Primorsky region.

Among the main exhibits are Pacific salmon, grenadiers, halibut, flounder, catfish, perch, cod, pollock, haddock and herring, as well as surimi, shrimp, sea urchins, squid, trepang, mussels, whelks and, of course, crabs: king crabs, snow crabs and hair crabs, both frozen and live.

The special attention was paid to processed fish products such as fish oil and fishmeal which were the core of KAPRI and NOBI expositions.

“We are very interested in the Chinese and Asian markets. We are not familiar with them yet, but they, for sure, has a big potential. The exhibition helped us to meet the customer face to face, explore some of the market’s characteristics which are not so obvious from the Russian point of view and make useful contacts,” KAPRI/BIOLOCUS press office commented its participation.

Snow crabs and pollock roe for Russian pavilion guests

Seafood Show Area became a new special point inside the Russian exposition. For three days, chefs treated visitors from China and other countries with gourmet dishes made from pollock roe and snow crab prepared according to traditional and modern craft recipes.

Thus, the variety of domestic raw materials proved their high quality and their adaptive potential to be used in Chinese and other Asian cuisines as well as all over the world.

Pollock roe was provided by the Pollock Catchers Association and snow crab was supplied by Sigma Marine Technology, Antey Group of Companies and Russian Crab Group of Companies.

China is just a step away

Logistics part of the Pavilion is also growing. Volga-Dnepr Airlines has presented its services for delivering live and chilled seafood, crabs and more from the Russia’s Far East and North.

“This is our first time to exhibit in China Fisheries & Seafood Expo and we were impressed by the number of real requests for shipment of fish and seafood from Russia to China, Asian countries (Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam) and the Persian Gulf. We had more than 20 meetings with existing and potential customers, provided them with detailed information about our services and shared our experience in building air supply chains for live crab and possible ways of using this for other products, such as scallops, chilled salmon, live oysters, caviar and roe,” commented Volga-Dnepr Airlines press office.

One more new exhibitor is Vladivostok Sea Fishing Port (Vladmorrybport) presented a logistics service for delivering fish and seafood in refrigerated containers from the Russian Far East to Asia-Pacific countries.

As a regular participant, Dalreftrans (member of the FESCO Group) also presented its services. Its representatives met with forwarding agents and traders interested in building new shipping routes for fish and seafood exports and discussed with the Russian companies’ shipments increase to various destinations.

Not only fish but also machinery

This year Russian equipment manufacturers also participated in the exhibition. They presented new technological solutions which were designed and tested by Russian fishery industry players.

“Year by year the Russian exposition at China Fisheries & Seafood Expo becomes more and more colorful and diverse. In addition to fishery companies and seafood processing enterprisers, representatives of the logistics sector and even equipment manufacturers are actively joining the Russian exposition. Thus, Marine Complex Systems company signed several agreements with enterprises of the shipbuilding industry of China. It is also important to highlight the participation of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping and the presentation of technological solutions, for example, the FishStat platform,” commented Ivan Fetisov, CEO, Expo Solutions Group.

Developing partnership relations with the organizers of the exhibition, Expo Solutions Group has concluded a new agreement with Sea Fare (China) which stated strengthening of cooperation, increase of the area of the Russian pavilion and use additional opportunities to promote Russian participants at the exhibition and Chinese market.

Next year, the 28th China Fisheries & Seafood Expo will be held at the Hongdao International Convention & Exhibition Centre (HICEC) in Qingdao on 29–31 October.

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