Situation of the fishing industry in China

Fishing is slowly becoming more popular

According to the incomplete statistics of an organisation, the number of anglers in China is about 160 million per year, with 13% of the total number of anglers under the age of 18, 10% between the ages of 18 and 24, and 46% between the ages of 25 and 45. The incremental number of participants in China's fishing industry is very large, and the overall age trend also has a clear bias, fishing activities are no longer the ‘patent’ of the middle-aged and elderly groups, but gradually to the young, fashionable, creative transformation.

State policy support

In recent years, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China have jointly issued documents and policies on strengthening the protection, inheritance and promotion of fishing culture. It mentions, among other things, encouraging the development of leisure fishing, fishing experience, lodging and food and science education industries themed on fishing culture, and promoting the protection and use of them.

Large market size potential

According to the data of China Leisure Fishing Development Monitoring Report (2022), in 2021, the turnover of China's leisure angling and collecting industry was 25.221 billion yuan, down 1.96% year-on-year. Among them, the turnover of freshwater leisure angling and collecting industry was RMB 21.200 billion, up 0.80% year-on-year; the turnover of seawater leisure angling and collecting industry was RMB 4.021 billion, down 14.36% year-on-year.

In the freshwater leisure angling and collecting industry, there are eight provinces with a turnover of more than 1 billion yuan, in order of Hubei, Jiangsu, Anhui, Sichuan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shandong and Guangdong. The top six are located in the Yangtze River Basin, six provinces turnover of 14.817 billion yuan, accounting for 69.89% of the national total. In the seawater leisure fishing and collecting industry, the turnover of Shandong, Guangdong and Liaoning accounted for 46.91 per cent, 19.50 per cent and 14.76 per cent of the national total respectively.

Abundant fish resources

China has 3 million square kilometres of jurisdictional waters spanning three major climatic zones, namely the tropical, subtropical and temperate zones, and is rich in marine biological resources. Among them, there are many carnivorous fish suitable for fishing, such as snappers, shiners and groupers. There are more than 700 species of freshwater fishes naturally distributed, including many carnivorous and valuable fishes suitable for angling, such as perch, mandarin fish and catfish. The vast expanse of water and the abundance of fish, especially as many rivers and lakes are located in scenic tourist areas, provide conditions for the development of inland recreational fisheries.