MOSCOW, May 21. /TASS/. Russia became the largest supplier of fish products to China in 2025 and maintained its position in the first quarter of 2026, the All-Russian Association of Fishery Enterprises reported.
"In 2025, Russia exported $3.42 bln worth of fish products to China, increasing its share of the country’s fish imports to 14.4%. Ecuador, which had retained its title as China’s largest seafood supplier for four consecutive years, fell to second place with a 13.7% share ($3.25 bln). In the first quarter of 2026, Russian fishermen strengthened their position, supplying China with fish products worth almost $1.1 bln. Russia’s share of Chinese imports increased from 13.8% to 16.2%, while Ecuador’s share decreased from 14.6% to 14%," the report said.
President of the association, German Zverev, has said that China is the largest importer of Russian fish and has always been one of the main strategic partners for Russian fishermen.
"For fifteen years, from 2005 to 2020, Russia led seafood exports to China. In 2021, Ecuador took over, becoming the world’s largest shrimp producer. Incidentally, this Latin American country created the shrimp market in China from scratch, increasing its share of Chinese imports from 0-1% to over 13% in ten years," he was quoted as saying.
Russia was the first country to introduce premium seafood to China, essentially creating a live crab market there from scratch, Zverev added. "Today, China is the world’s largest consumer of this product. Later, Ecuador and Norway followed our path," he said.
"While developing domestic consumption of Russian fish products, we also expanded raw material exports to Chinese processing plants, including frozen pollock, cod, salmon, and other products. This policy allowed Russia to maintain its leadership in the Chinese market for many years. This strategy has also helped us regain it: we are increasing exports of frozen pollock, herring, cod for processing, live crab, surimi, and other highly processed products for domestic consumption. At the same time, we are developing new supply routes, for halibut and pollock roe, for example. As an analysis conducted by the All-Russian Association of Fishery Enterprises in 2024 showed, the export potential to China is not exhausted - by 2030, shipments could increase 1.7-fold to almost $4.88 bln," the association’s head said.