Eels are unloaded at a sorting facility in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture, Japan on April 16, 2021. Photo: AFP

China's eel industry has achieved rapid growth despite the pandemic, witnessing a year-on-year increase of 42.3 percent in exports in the first nine months of this year, as the country has become the world's largest eel farm, analysts said.  

Japanese media reported on Sunday that a Japanese company engaged in fresh food wholesaling in Takayama City admitted on Friday to falsely labeling Chinese eels as having been produced in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. 

The company said that the falsification lasted for five years, and it apologized.

"Eel production in Japan is not enough to meet demand, thus Chinese eels with higher production volume and lower prices have become the first choice for Japanese merchants," Fan Xubing, president of Beijing Seabridge Marketing, a cold-chain food importer, told the Global Times on Monday.

Experts said that the falsification scandal showed that China's eel industry made a rapid recovery despite the pandemic, with stable growth in exports, especially to Japan.

According to customs data, from January to September, China exported 53,900 tons of eel products at a value of $1.04 billion. Shipments to Japan totaled 26,000 tons.

"Japan's annual eel consumption is 40,000 to 50,000 tons, and more than 70 percent of that is imported. The bulk of imports come from China, and more than 60 percent of the total imports come from Taishan, South China's Guangdong Province," Zhou Zhaoen, president of the Guangdong Eel Industry Association, was quoted as saying in a report by the Economic Information Daily.

Taishan is the world's largest eel breeding production base as well as the largest eel export base. Its live-eel exports account for about 80 percent of China's total eel exports. The export value of the Taishan eel sector exceeded 1 billion yuan ($0.15 billion) in 2020.

Fan said that along with exports to Japan, Chinese consumers also can enjoy this delicacy, as many domestic Japanese restaurants made a rapid recovery from the epidemic.

"As indispensable products in Japan and many other countries, Chinese eels, with world-class quality, enjoy a broad consumer market," Zhou said.

According to customs statistics, Japan is still the largest market for China's eel exports, and exports to Malaysia, the US and Russia also maintained rapid growth, showing that the potential of China's eel exports should not be underestimated, analysts said.

Global Times