--- The Lenten season is fast approaching and you'll want to be stocked up for all of your seafood requirements earlier than previous years, as China production and supply chain constraints continue to disrupt the seafood industry.

Lent is the time of year when fish and other seafood are consumed instead of other meats which means the pressure on the supply of seafood is always high during the Lent season - and without a doubt, seafood sales always increase during this time.

Lent always starts after Fat Tuesday and ends before Easter which means the upcoming Lent will run from March 2nd to April 14th 2022.

With major processing plants in China still closed and with Chinese New Year in the sightlines, the chance of containers shipping out of China before Chinese New Year and arriving in North America before Lent will be a long shot.

Our recommendation is to start discussing your Lent Program now with us at Tradex Foods if you want to guarantee a successful Lent season - as we always have seafood in transit, and always have stable inventories of seafood in North America.

--- Now for an update in China as processing plants in Dalian remain closed due to COVID-19 restrictions and plants in Qingdao are fully booked ahead of Chinese New Year, but are still behind schedule where some orders (ultimately) will be delayed, until after Chinese New Year.

A new notice from the Chinese Government specifies that between December 25th to January 15th, all processing plants in Dalian will need to reassess their COVID protocol for the Government to review, where then, only approved plants can resume production.

This most likely means that plants in Dalian will not be able to resume production before Chinese New Year because plant closures for the Chinese New Year holiday is slated for around the 23rd of January.

For a snapshot of the current raw materials situation in China, please refer to this chart on the screen.



During the 1st week of December it was reported that all businesses in Zhuanghe were allowed to open except for seafood businesses.

Zhuanghe is a district of Dalian which was the source of a recent COVID-19 outbreak in November.

Since then, it is said that COVID in Zhuanghe is under control and people are allowed out of their homes since December 5th.

As the Chinese Government tends to move swiftly and unpredictably, keep tuned in here for regular updates on the seafood situation in China as the situation in Dalian is highly progressive.

CHECK OUT OUR #SeaTheGood CAMPAIGN Which Seeks To Spotlight Something “Good” Happening In The Seafood World As Opposed To Unfortunate News. #SeaTheGood

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