Research On Competitiveness Of Qingdao Aquatic Products Export

For quite a long time, aquatic products have become the popular delicacies in manycountries because of the delicious taste and rich nutrients. Along with economic development,people hope that a change of diet could benefit health and help to generate a sense ofwell-being. Aquatic products have been led to a greatdeveloping potentiality by a growingawareness and demand of living quality improvement thanks to the healthy functions.Correspondingly, due to the global increasing consumption, aquatic products trade has a veryextensive perspective. China, up to the present, is the world largest aquiculture base with thetotal output of more than50million tons and the annual value of nearly700billion Yuan.Meanwhile, as the big aquatic products trading country, its trade volume amounted to$20billion, or10%of the world market share in2010. Shandong, one of the famous fisheryprovinces, rank the first in China for aquatic products output, processing quantity and exportvolume. Aquatic products trading plays an extremely vital role in Shandong foreign trade andeconomy, occupying a tenth part of the total. By the end of2010, Shandong trade volume ofaquatic products has taken the first place in the whole nation for16years in succession. On theother hand, Qingdao, an opening costal city, marches at the head of Shandong Province with asteady growth of foreign trade. In the last few years, fishing industry has become one of themost fundamental traditional industries with the export value accounting for41.4%of theprovince and13.7%of the country. Aquatic products have dominated the export sector ofQingdao foreign trade and added a positive influence to national economy. Afterwards, moreand more considerable attention around the world has been attracted by Qingdao aquiculture.However, recently, since the green trade barrier, faster RMB appreciation, higherminimum wages and energy costs, the comparative advantages of Qingdao aquatic productsexport are being weakened gradually. The processing business profit space is narrowing littleby little while aquatic products export trade has been converting into a low growth from therapid. Therefore, aquatic products processing industry is facing unprecedented challengesinstead of purely depending on the international market. On the whole, only strengthening themarket research and analysis could we gain more competitive edges and achieve sustainabledevelopment of aquatic products export. In view of current Qingdao aquatic products export status and existing problems, avariety of subjects of aquatic products in this article are deeply analyzed on processing industryactuality, export market structure and trade methods by competitive advantage theory. In thepaper, a set of contradistinctive analysis of aquatic products export competitive advantages arecarried out at six fields of demand conditions, factor conditions, related and supportingindustries, firm strategy, structure and rivalry, government behavior, chance and challengethrough the Diamond Model. Meanwhile, adopting the international market share, revealedcompetitive advantage index and trade competitive index, the text has measured, estimated andanalyzed the export competitiveness of Qingdao aquatic products. The study shows thatQingdao has no such exports competitive superiority compared with parts of national andprovincial cities. At the last, this article discusses restraining factors from two perspectives andputs forward several proposals and measures of how to enhance export competitiveness thus topromote the sustainable development of Qingdao aquatic products exportation.