Corporate News
With the improvement of living standards, people's consumption habits have also undergone no small changes. Aquatic products are widely used by people for their color, aroma, high protein and low fat. However, recently, some supermarkets in Beijing have set off a "live fish missing" incident. Since then, news about water pollution, malachite green and so on have also gone.
The Beijing Food and Drug Administration responded on the evening of November 23 that some supermarkets have stopped selling freshwater live fish as an independent act. Beijing has never issued a notice to stop selling freshwater live fish. The rumors of pollution are not credible.
In this regard, some insiders pointed out that this is actually related to the leakage of special inspections of aquatic products by the State Food and Drug Administration, causing some operators to evade inspection.
Whatever the reason, the "live fish disappearance" incident has occurred, but it is impossible to ignore that there are indeed some problems in China's aquatic product market. The transformation and upgrading of the industry should also start from the perspective of many people in the industry.
Strengthening supervision "Determining civil strife"
“Currently, China’s aquatic product production is growing at an average rate of around 5% per year, and has ranked first in the world for 25 consecutive years. The total annual output is about 70 million tons, of which sea and fresh water each account for half. The processing scale and technology of the products are also the world's leading." Professor Li Jianrong, deputy president of Bohai University and director of the National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Fresh Agricultural Products Storage and Safety Control Technology, introduced in an interview with the reporter of China Sankei Shimbun.
Looking at China's aquatic products enterprises, Li Jianrong also pointed out that in recent years, the scale of large-scale aquatic products enterprises has become larger and larger, while the number of small and medium-sized enterprises has been closed. This is mainly reflected in the increase in the total output of aquatic products, the decrease in the number of enterprises, and the increasing concentration. The transformation and upgrading is an urgent problem facing enterprises.
In terms of sales of aquatic products, “In recent years, the proportion of China’s aquatic products exports has been decreasing year by year, and the proportion of domestic sales has increased. Therefore, how to open the aquatic products enterprises, especially the exporting aquatic products enterprises, as soon as possible. In the domestic market, the development of aquatic products suitable for the tastes and habits of Chinese consumers has become a priority." He stressed that this is also a major turning point in the industry.
In addition, the aquaculture production of the whole aquaculture industry is increasing year by year, and the catching volume is decreasing. The farming volume accounts for more than 70% of the current aquatic products. In this regard, Li Jianrong proposed that this will easily lead to security problems. First of all, the intensive culture environment is easy to cause disease transmission, and the use of drugs to fight disease will cause safety hazards. Secondly, water and metal pollution cause heavy metal products to exceed the standard; at the same time, offshore environmental pollution is intensified, organic matter is increased, and pathogenic microorganisms are increased. Security issues are also urgently needed to be resolved.
Previously, the media had repeatedly exposed some aquaculture companies to increase the survival rate of aquatic products, prolong the survival time, use malachite green or other illegal drugs. Not only that, from the food sampling information previously announced by the Beijing Food and Drug Administration, a public notice in early November showed that among the 33 unqualified products, fresh seafood accounted for 8 and freshwater fish accounted for about 4. The reasons for the non-conformity include the excessive concentration of enrofloxacin, the detection of non-edible material malachite green, and the cadmium content exceeding the standard.
According to the introduction of Zhongren Puhua researcher Ji Renpeng, the circulation of aquatic products has to go through many links such as farming farmers, aquatic products companies, wholesale markets and retail terminals. In fact, the fry from the breeding, circulation to the market, there may be problems in every link. There are many nodes in the chain, and there are many nodes that may cause problems.
The quality and safety of aquatic products is related to the health and food safety of consumers. It involves many aspects such as the production, breeding and circulation of input products, and is also affected by factors such as transportation and preservation environment. If the regulatory authorities only conduct quality inspections from the breeding sector, it is difficult to guarantee the safety standards of products circulating in the market. In an interview with the reporter of China Sankei Shimbun, Wei Renpeng emphasized that “in fact, there are many hidden dangers in the holdings. Therefore, strengthening the supervision of aquatic products is the only way for industrial upgrading.”
It is reported that the second-hand supply market of small and medium-sized aquatic products accounts for 40% of the entire aquatic product wholesale market, and most of the supply of retailers of the freshwater products of the entity is also from the wholesale market. In the view of Wei Renpeng, “intermediate links are also difficult to guarantee the safety of product quality. The regulatory policy should also focus on strengthening the quality supervision of the wholesale market. This will not only help stabilize the growing demand in the retail market, but also guarantee upstream products. The supply is sufficient and safe, so that supervision can be implemented in all aspects."
However, some people in the industry have put forward different views. The industry insider, who asked not to be named, said in an interview with the China Sankei Shimbun News that strengthening supervision should be moved to the source, that is, to supervise the aquaculture end. The concept of law enforcement of the Food Safety Law, which is currently dominated by the Food and Drug Administration System, is still quite different from the concept of the Agricultural Products Quality and Safety Law led by the agricultural sector. Source regulation in the agricultural sector, and the idea of a combination of production and management may be a big challenge. ”
He also said that aquaculture belongs to the agricultural production sector and is regulated by the agricultural sector. The aquatic products are regulated by the food and drug regulatory authorities until the circulation phase. Aquatic products are generally agricultural products, and production is regulated in accordance with the Agricultural Products Quality and Safety Law. However, the purpose of this law is to advance industry and safety. This will actually cause some problems. “The functional departments may be ignorant or disregard for safety due to industrial promotion, which causes problems in the safety supervision of aquatic products. The sampling inspection system currently implemented by the food and drug supervision department is actually supervising the aquatic products entering the market. Afterthought and lag," he admitted.
Multi-party assistance to help the industry transformation and upgrading
Strengthening the government's supervision work to promote the transformation and upgrading of the aquaculture industry is indispensable, but in the eyes of the above-mentioned insiders, it is also necessary to mobilize social forces to monitor illegal activities against the aquatic products market. In developed regions such as Shenzhen, there are some professional counterfeiters, because the government has set up high rewards to report food safety violations, and can mobilize the power of consumers to achieve social co-governance.
In addition to promoting the upgrading of the aquaculture industry through the supervision of various parties, he also proposed that “there is a phenomenon of “returning to the ancestor” in the marketization of agricultural products. People will think that returning to the original ecological clean soil, applying organic fertilizer, etc. The civilizations of the ancestors of the human ancestors that have been inherited for thousands of years are worthy of admiration. Such movements seem to be rare in the aquatic industry and may be related to the greater regional nature of aquatic products. For example, more food is eaten in coastal cities in the south. However, it is impossible to form a national food culture. Therefore, the trend of aquatic products advocating green nature does not appear as the phenomenon of “returning to the ancestors” like the more popular agricultural products such as vegetables and fruits.” He believes that the merchants who carefully cultivate the aquatic products may be differentiated in the market. Drawing on the above ideas, we will produce clean aquatic products to achieve better economic benefits.
In this regard, Li Jianrong pointed out that in the aspect of aquaculture, a green farming model should be promoted. At the same time, he also believes that in processing, the comprehensive utilization of fish head, fish skin, fish bones, fish viscera and other waste materials should be the focus of future research. He further explained, “With the rapid growth of aquatic product processing capacity, its by-products are gradually increasing. These scraps are usually used as feed after simple treatment or directly discarded as waste. This will not only cause waste of resources, but also It will cause environmental pollution." Therefore, for the waste produced by the processing of aquatic products, it can be used for high-value comprehensive utilization by enzyme technology, thermal reaction technology, ultra-fine pulverization technology, etc., and processed into aquatic protein base, seafood seasoning, natural calcium. Enhancers and high-calcium fish sausages and other products can produce good economic and social benefits.
At the same time, aquaculture processing companies must increase the automation of their production, increase labor productivity and reduce costs. Li Jianrong pointed out that the processing of aquatic products is different from the processing of other foods, such as meat products. The individual fish is large and small, and the structure is complex. It is very difficult to use mechanization completely, so how to improve the mechanization and automation of production. It is another problem to be overcome in the future.
In addition, “Enterprises can also take the branding route and minimize the circulation in the middle. They can directly establish direct connection with catering and supermarket chains. Reduce the circulation, from the breeding links, circulation links, to the market, gradually form fixed-point production, fixed-point circulation, The process of fixed-point sales, thus forming a relatively good industry development trend." said Wing Yanpeng.
Especially worth mentioning is that nowadays, after 90s and 00, they basically don't know how to kill fish, and killing live fish on the spot is also dirty, which is not conducive to environmental protection. In this regard, Li Jianrong said frankly that the proportion of the live fish market in the future may decline year by year, especially in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou. In the future, we will, like developed countries, the proportion of frozen and fresh-keeping fish in the market. Will increase year by year.
Wei Renpeng proposed that it is also possible to vigorously develop fresh processing, breed and process aquaculture species, and improve the organization and scale of aquaculture production through “live with fresh”, “fresh words” and “culture for the market”. And the degree of standardization of products, together with e-commerce to solve bottlenecks in development.