From Barcelona to Vigo: What European Seafood Buyers Are Asking in 2026
In April our export team spent three days at Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona. Next week the autumn frozen-seafood season opens again at Conxemar in Vigo. Here are the five questions we were asked most often — and how we answer them.
🔎 Barcelona, in Three Lines
Barcelona in April is a fairground for the entire seafood industry. Fira Gran Via hosted Seafood Expo Global and Seafood Processing Global from 21 to 23 April 2026, with exhibitors from more than 80 countries and buyers walking every link of the chain — wild catch, aquaculture, processing, cold chain, packaging and equipment. Our team spent three days on the floor. We came home with notebooks full of questions, and one clear conclusion.
Buyers were not shopping for the cheapest quote. They were shopping for the supplier who could prove, in writing, what was in the box.
❓ The Five Questions We Hear Most
These five came up again and again — in English, Spanish, Italian, French and German.
1. “What species is it — and what is its Latin name?”
Squid is not a product. Loligo, Illex, Dosidicus gigas and Uroteuthis edulis are different animals with different prices, textures and regulatory profiles — and European buyers now check. Since the mislabeling findings published in Food Control in February 2026, where DNA barcoding showed that roughly one in four squid products on sale in Brussels and Milan was mislabeled by species, that check has moved from occasional to routine. We label to species level, and we will tell you the Latin name in writing before you have to ask for it.
2. “Which certificates — and in whose name?”
The question is no longer “are you certified?” It is “which legal entity holds the certificate, and which plant is approved?” We answer it precisely. Our partner processing plants are HACCP and BRCGS certified, and each shipment travels with the EU health certificate carrying the plant approval number, plus IUU catch documentation where applicable. Angfa is a trading company — our job is to make sure those documents are correct, complete and matched to the batch you receive.
3. “Where was it caught?”
FAO fishing area, vessel, and transshipment where relevant. The traceability requirements tightening on the Chinese export side and the EU import side are converging on the same question — and it is far easier to answer at source than in a port warehouse three weeks later.
4. “What is the net weight, and what is the glaze?”
This is the single most-argued figure in frozen seafood. Net weight, glaze percentage and packing are three separate numbers, and a landed-cost calculation only works if all three are stated. We state them separately, so your costing and your label both hold up.
5. “What formats, what MOQ, and when does it arrive?”
Block frozen, IQF, interleaved, layer packed — cut and sized to your line rather than to ours. Send us the specification and the destination port, and we will come back in writing with formats, MOQ, lead time and terms.
📈 Three Things That Changed This Year
🏭 What Angfa Brings to This
Dalian Angfa Trading Co., Ltd. has been in the seafood supply chain since 2000 — a quarter of a century of sourcing, cold chain and export documentation out of Dalian, Liaoning. We supply frozen seafood and cephalopods to buyers across Europe, North America and Japan. What we control is the part between the fishing vessel and your port: sourcing at approved plants, cold chain integrity, and a final verification before anything is sealed.
A family business, long relationships at both ends of the chain, and one simple rule: if we cannot document it, we do not claim it.
📍 Next Stop: Conxemar, Vigo — 6–8 October 2026
Next week the 27th Conxemar, the international frozen seafood exhibition, opens at IFEVI in Vigo. If you will be there, we would like to meet. Bring the specification that has been hardest to source — that is the conversation we are best at.