China's Dominance in the Surimi Market: Trends and Future Outlook

China has been taking a key role in both the domestic and global surimi markets. Surimi is a refined fish myofibrillar protein paste that has become a popular option for countries with high consumption of seafood and seafood products.

To meet the global high demand for surimi, China contributes to the production and export of surimi made from various species, particularly freshwater Asian carps.

With its role to meet domestic and global demand, China’s surimi industry is estimated to have a bright future.

Historical Growth of China's Surimi Industry

China began its surimi industry in the 1900s, partnering with other Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea, and Thailand. China’s surimi production continues to develop and later grew rapidly in the 2000s.

This rapid growth was the successful outcome of massive construction of Chinese shore-based surimi manufacturing. Many shore-based surimi producers, especially in 2000-2010, played a role in the improvement of surimi within the country. Automatically, the need for fishing efforts in the South China Sea was increased.

With its surimi industry positively rising in the 2000s, China became one of the leading countries for surimi production.

Current Status of China's Surimi Production

As one of the countries with a high level of seafood and seafood product consumption, China has been taking on a role as both producer and importer of surimi. Even so, real-time data of surimi production in China is not easy to track online.

China did not have any statistics for its own surimi production. Chinese surimi producers, however, reported that the nation's surimi production at the time was around 200,000 MT. In 2012, the country's insufficient fish supply led to a decrease in the production volume.

A number of researchers, however, have been estimating China’s surimi production as well as its imports from several countries. Urner Barry (2023) estimated China’s surimi production increased in 2017 to about 241,000 MT.

It rose quite high compared to its surimi production in 2010, but it kept decreasing for the following years until 2023, with almost 219,000 MT, which is estimated to be higher than in 2022.

Diversification into Freshwater Fish Surimi

Due to the lack of marine fish supply, Chinese surimi producers continued to produce surimi using freshwater species, particularly Asian carps.

There are four species of Asian carps, including bighead, silver, grass, and black carps. China has been widely using these species for surimi production. Not only for surimi production, Asian carps are commonly consumed in the country.

With freshwater species as the main ingredient, surimi production in China was estimated at about 30,000 MT from 2011 to 2012. The production has been growing ever since as the popular option, especially in central regions.

Urner Barry (2023) estimated an annual raise for surimi production made from carp in China, especially from 2017 to 2022. The total production reached 40,638 MT and 83,568 MT in 2022 before slightly decreasing in 2023.

Fun fact: Freshwater surimi made from carps is not as popular as tropical surimi in China. Researchers estimated that the consumption of other tropical species for surimi production within the country is higher than carps. 

Although it is pretty common to consume carps in China, tropical surimi is still much preferred, with almost 200,001 MT of total production in 2017 and about 127,000 MT in 2022.

Other than carps, Chinese surimi producers also used other species like Alaskan pollock and Pacific whiting.

China’s Export Trends and Domestic Market

The export trends of China as a surimi producer country show positive growth over time.

China’s Surimi Export Trends: Early 2000s

China does not only import surimi but also exports its own carp surimi across the world. Not only Chinese carp surimi, but also Pacific whiting and Alaskan pollock surimi, according to Urner Barry (2023).

This country has been one of the large exporters, with a total of 70,000 MT exported to Japan and Korea from 2008 to 2010. Most of this exported surimi was made from ribbon fish and low-grade surimi.

China, among the other Asia-Pacific countries, also has a strong domestic market for surimi seafood production, such as crab sticks and fish balls. China is estimated to produce and export crab sticks at 30,000-40,000 MT and over a million MT of fish balls since the 2000s.

China’s Surimi Export Trends: Recent Years

In recent years, China has been exporting surimi made from Alaskan pollock and Pacific whiting.

Urner Barry (2023) estimated that China exported more than 3,000 MT of Alaskan pollock surimi in 2021, lower than South Korea and Japan. However, this number grows 90.1% in 2022 with almost 6,000 MT.

Even so, China only exported a small amount of Pacific whiting surimi along with Poland from 2020 to 2023.

Future Outlook and Growth Prospects

As one of the Asia-Pacific countries that dominate the global surimi market, China’s surimi industry has a bright future to keep growing.

China’s role as a surimi producer also has an impact on meeting the high demand for surimi. According to the GLOBEFISH Research Programme, China has been experiencing progress as a surimi producer.

Grand View Research predicts that the global surimi market will reach a revenue of US$ 6,067.2 million in 2030. China will be part of this improvement through its potential to produce surimi made from various fish species, including Asian carps, Alaskan pollock, and Pacific whiting.

China also potentially contributes to the global market due to its high seafood product consumption. This will add more value to surimi and surimi seafood, such as crab sticks made from Alaskan pollock surimi within the country.

Therefore, China will impact the global surimi market's positive growth through both surimi production and consumption.

Conclusion

China is one of the countries with high consumption of seafood and seafood products. With a high interest in seafood within the country, China’s surimi industry plays a key role not only in meeting its domestic demand but also in surimi's global demand.

Surimi production within the country, using Asian carps and the other species, will support China’s surimi industry to contribute to the global market. The high interest in surimi from around the world will benefit China for both domestic and export production.

On the whole, supported by global demand for surimi and many researchers' analyses, China has the potential to keep a bright future coming for this industry to grow.