Bringing Finnish Fisheries Expertise to South China
FinnCham was pleased to participate in the World Maritime Equipment Conference 2026 in Fuzhou, where Vice Chairman Saara Fu delivered a speech on the Finnish fishing industry.
The session: Nordic cold-water know-how meets the East China Sea
Finland’s fishing industry operates in some of the most demanding conditions in the world: icy Baltic waters and northern European lakes, harsh winters, and equipment that simply cannot afford to fail. As the session highlighted, technologies engineered for the Nordics tend to perform reliably anywhere, which is precisely what makes Finnish expertise so relevant for China’s vast and rapidly modernising fisheries and aquaculture sector.
Finnish industry know-how is already in South China
Finnish technology and expertise are not just a future prospect in the region, we are already here, offering entry points for deeper cooperation in marine technology and sustainable fisheries.
Why this matters: Fujian is one of China’s most important maritime provinces, and its push toward modernisation, automation, sustainability, and cold-chain development, aligns closely with Finnish strengths. Conferences like this make the two ecosystems visible to each other and turn proximity into partnership.
The Blue Forward Fund
A development closely connected to our engagement in Fujian is the Blue Forward Fund, a European venture fund dedicated to the sustainable blue economy, led by Isabelle de Cremoux (CEO of Seventure Partners) and Pierre Erwes (Chairman of BioMarine). The fund invests €2–10 million per company in blue bioeconomy, blue cleantech, and the digitization of the blue value chain — fields where Finnish expertise is strong.
Through the China-EU Blue Forward Fund collaboration and its partnership with the Fujian-based ocean innovation platform Fujian-OI, the fund is actively building Europe-China channels in the marine and maritime sectors.
For Finnish companies in these fields, the fund and its Fujian ties represent one of the most concrete Europe-China opportunities we have seen, and a natural complement to the connections made at the Fujian Maritime Conference.
Read more about the Blue Forward Fund!
FinnCham thanks the Fujian Maritime Conference organisers for the kind invitation and excellent arrangements, and all attendees who joined the session and spoke with us afterwards.
Photos from the event:
