The trend in China is increasingly towards value-added, processed seafood products, Cui He of the China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance (CAPPMA) told his panel at the SeaWeb summit.

The current market share for processed seafood goods is 35%, but this is expected to continue increasing in the coming years, driven in part by e-commerce.

The chief driver behind this move is convenience, he said, with younger generations looking for a quicker solution than cleaning and cooking a whole fish. In this way, the market share, and variety of, value-added and ready-processed seafood is expected to increase, particularly via online shops.

The importance of online retail is such that CAPPMA has been in discussion with e-commerce giant Tmall to guarantee the traceability of all fish sold through the online mall this year, said He.

In order to serve a market which demands more processed products, CAPPMA expects vessels to increasingly develop on-board processing, in order to up quality and efficiency.

There is also likely to be a move in processing plants to rely more on automation and software, particularly as labor costs rise.