The Future of Seafood Sustainability & China

The China seminar, China's Seafood Marketplace: Our Common Future, was certainly a discussion of scale...on how to think and rethink our engagement on sustainability given the world's largest population group, largest exporter, and biggest consumer of seafood per capita. An illustration provided by Jack Liu, Zhangzidao Fishery Group, is the immense size of their shellfish production area, which covers 1,500 square kilometers, an impossible reality in other parts of the world. A major takeaway provided by Hugo Contreras, Cargill, and supported by other speakers is that the world must face the changing reality of "made in China" to "made for China". Finally, Peter Redmayne, SeaFare Group, noted that a major key to successful engagement in China is building trust and understanding the importance of guanxi, which loosely translates to one's personalized network of influence. It seems a lot of this relationship building for business is built around dinner and drinks, with emphasis on the drinks!