Maw export is largely banned around the world as it had been done illegally for years to the point where fish like the Mexican native Totoaba fish has been driven to a percentage of its population. Mexico has cracked down on this illegal fishing recently and the Chinese delicacy market had to look elsewhere for their fish bladder addiction.
In Uganda, according to This article published in January 2020, Uganda has started direct exportation of the fish bladder (Maw) to China after the two countries signed a deal to discourage the illegal black market trade of fish maw. According to the article Uganda exports 520 Tonnes of Fish maw annually into China.
According to This article, Bangladesh also exported 6190 tonnes of their native fish bladders into Hong Kong, China, and also Vietnam over 4 years. which averages around to approximately 1550 tonnes a year.
Myanmar also exports Fish although mostly through illegal exportation their Bahaba fish is quite popular in China.
Fish species like the Giant Yellow Croaker, which used to be found just off China's coast are non-existent and if found would sell for upwards of half a million dollars on the black market.
Fish bladder is not only a delicacy. People will risk getting fined and jail time to export them. New Zeland seems to be a newly emerging Fish bladder market and it hasn't picked up just yet. With how other countries exports are going it really seems to me like there's only 1 direction New Zealands markets will be heading. And the reason why I say NZ markets and not NZS is because in New Zealand there is local competition, with Chinese businesses and companies coming to NewZealand to specifically Fish and export Maw and other seafood overseas to China.
Ocean wild seems to be NZS's only relatively large competition locally and easily found online, however, there's no information on the amount of export they do or any statistics I could use to compare other than the fact that they do have their product on many different Chinese sites that export products to china similar to what NZS did with Supermilk Baba recently.
This website, for example, a distributor that reaches out to Asian markets, and a couple of other distributors that have a strictly Chinese website.
Competition is good in my opinion, and the fact that there are Chinese companies coming all the way out to NewZealand to fish and export Ling Maw shows us that the product is valuable. The fact that other countries are mass exporting to China and other Asian countries shows us there is an active market. One thing to note about NZ Ling fish is that it is certified SUSTAINABLE by the Marine Stewardship Council according to the global gold standard for sustainability.
Ling maw is no currently popular in China as it's less known compared to the other ones. I'm excited to see the contracts and deals that will be signed in the future when Ling fish Maw doe start picking up in popularity overseas.
The last point I'd like to make is that NZS is not only a Seafood product company but now also a Nutraceutical and Pharmaceutical company. The Executive director (Aldo Miccio) Predicts that Neutraceuticals will be the highest earners for NZS in the future.
NZS Price at posting:
5.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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