By Jean Yang
It is estimated that 70 percent of fisheries in the world come from China, and it is a major provider to the United States, Japan, and Europe. But Chinese fish farmers who catch their product in grimy water sources now face problems both in the country and on the international market. Farmers failure to deliver the goods that meet the standards of food security and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) might lose its future market partners if the situation persist.
It is estimated that 70 percent of fisheries in the world come from China, and it is a major provider to the United States, Japan, and Europe. But Chinese fish farmers who catch their product in grimy water sources now face problems both in the country and on the international market.
Officials from the Ministry of Fisheries say they have acknowledged the problems of pollution and water shortage since contamination has become a challenge for these industries.
Ding Xiaoming, the director of aquacultures in the ministry,says: “water quality is the top issue for Chinese aquaculture…Without good water quality, Chinese aquaculture cannot develop.”He believes Chinese rapid urbanization and industrialization is to blame for the polluted water streams.
Lin Sunbao, a fish farmer in Fujian, says his best years were the early 1990s. He only had one aqua farm and he earned over $500,000 USD a year.Then the electrical and textileindustries arrived in the area, and the basins and rivers became contaminated with petroleum, lead, mercury and copper. The streams have been classified as unfit for human consumption.
Fishermen have been trying to adapt to the environmental degradation by injecting illegal veterinary drugs and pesticides into the fish feed to keep their stock alive, leading to harmful side effects including cancer and liver diseases.
“They are heavy metals, mercury and flame retardants in fish samples we’ve tested. We’ve got
to stop the pollutants entering the food system.” says Ming Hung Wong, a professor of biology at Hong Kong Baptist University.
Just last year, between January and April, the United States refused 37 percent of catfish shipments, 20 percent of shrimp shipments, and 22 percent of eel products. The refusal rate on the grounds of veterinary drugs in 2007 made up 19.5 percent of all seafood, in comparison to 8 percent in 2006, and 3 percent in 2005.
The United States Food and Drug Administration is not the only one keeping an eye on these products. European Union regulators and Japan have also put temporary bans on seafood due to illegal drug residue.
In order to improve the situation, China has created the “Plan for rapid response to emergency food safety”, and shut down a couple of seafood companies who do not meet the standard of water protection.
On the other hand, Thailand, another major exporter of seafood to the Supply of United States, had only two rejections involving illegal drug usage, compared to 210 refusals for China.
Wang Wu, a professor at Shanghai Fisheries University says: “We’ve blindly emphasized economicgrowth. The only pursuit has been GDP, and now the water turns dirty and the seafood gets dangerous.”
Though environmental conditions seem to trouble the Chinese seafood industries, the decline in fish stock in the oceans favors the Chinese fish farms. China is the biggest producer of farmed seafood and aqua farming. It brings in 115 billion pounds of seafood and cultivates 70 percent of farmed fish world-wide.
Environmental experts say the economic growth and demand will overwhelm the water quality and
endanger seafood production. According to the China Environment Forum, the regulations on food
safety in China have been loosely implemented: by a weak monitoring system, strong local government protectionism of the industries and little consumer protection surveillance.
Therefore, new laws should be created for the safety of food export, the forum says.
Yet, Chinese officials downplay the food safety issue, saying it is exaggerated. “It is a question of
common sense. Do you believe that fish can live in toxic water?Personally, I believe that this report
is sensational and misleading” says Vice Minister Gao Hongbin.
The state controlled news media has also criticized the issue as “totally groundless,” and says these concerns are stirred up by interest groups in the United States and Japan in order to stop China from acquiring market share.
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