Ministry of Agriculture Issues Interim Measures for the Management of Information Collection for Aquatic Product Wholesale Markets

Article 1: These Measures are specially formulated in order to standardize the information collection work of the designated units for information collection at aquatic product wholesale markets of the Ministry of Agriculture (referred to as designated units), ensure the operational quality and efficiency of the collection system, improve the accuracy and timeliness of information, and better provide information services to industry competent authorities, producers, operators and consumers.

Article 2: The Bureau of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for managing the information collection work of the designated units for information collection at aquatic product wholesale markets, and provides necessary support for the development of the work. The China Society of Fisheries is entrusted to establish the Aquatic Product Wholesale Market Information Collection Center (referred to as the Information Collection Center), which is specifically responsible for statistics, analysis, organization, coordination and other routine management work.

Article 3: The fisheries competent authorities of each province, autonomous region, municipality directly under the Central Government and municipality with separate state planning (hereinafter referred to as provincial-level fisheries competent authorities) are specifically responsible for the information collection work of aquatic product wholesale markets within their jurisdiction, establish and manage the information collection system for aquatic product wholesale markets in their region, designate dedicated personnel responsible for the collection and analysis of information from aquatic product wholesale markets, and provide necessary support for the development of this work.

Article 4: The application and recognition of designated units shall adhere to the principles of voluntariness, fairness, impartiality and openness. Aquatic product wholesale markets applying to become designated units shall meet the following basic conditions: they shall be representative to a certain degree nationally or regionally (trading volume and trading value ranking among the top nationally or regionally, or the trading volume and trading value of a certain species ranking among the top nationally or regionally), the market shall be equipped with basic information collection software and hardware facilities, and full-time or part-time personnel shall be arranged to be responsible for information collection and reporting.

Article 5: Markets applying to become designated units shall submit applications to the provincial-level fisheries competent authority in their locality. The provincial-level fisheries competent authority is responsible for reviewing the materials submitted by the market and recommending them to the Bureau of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture. The Bureau of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture entrusts the Information Collection Center to examine the materials, and determines the designated units for information collection based on the examination results. The Bureau of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture uniformly issues plaques to the determined designated units (valid for five years) and announces them publicly.

Article 6: Designated units shall select personnel with a certain amount of professional knowledge in aquatic product wholesale market information collection and corresponding computer operation ability to serve as information collectors for aquatic product wholesale market information collection (referred to as information collectors), and report them to the Bureau of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture for approval. The Bureau of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture uniformly issues letters of appointment to the determined information collectors (valid for five years) and announces them publicly.

Article 7: Designated units shall provide information collectors with working conditions compatible with work requirements, and ensure that information collectors remain relatively stable. If information collectors need to be replaced, the Information Collection Center shall be notified in advance, and work handover shall be properly carried out to ensure the normal operation of information collection work. Information collectors shall continuously strengthen professional study, enhance sensitivity to market information, and improve information analysis and assessment capabilities.
Article 8: The Information Collection Center shall establish an expert group for aquatic product wholesale market information analysis. The list of expert group members shall be proposed by the Information Collection Center and reported to the Bureau of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture for approval. The Bureau of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture issues letters of appointment to the determined expert group members (valid for five years). Information analysis experts shall submit at least one analysis article on the operational situation of the aquatic product wholesale market in their region to the Information Collection Center each month, and participate in phase-based situation analysis discussions, training and other activities organized by the Information Collection Center as required.

Article 9: Information reporting shall implement a daily report and monthly report system. Information collectors shall, before 18:00 each day, report to the Information Collection Center the trading prices of all collected species in their market that day and the transaction status of the top 10 species by trading volume (if fewer than 10 species, report according to the actual number of traded species). Before the 5th of each month, they shall report the previous month's total market trading value, total trading volume and monthly analysis report on market operations.

Article 10: The Information Collection Center is responsible for providing professional guidance to designated units and information collectors, supervising the quality of their information reporting, and when abnormal data is found, promptly understanding the situation and correcting the information through telephone communication or on-site investigation. At the same time, it shall provide necessary technical guidance and services to provincial-level fisheries competent authorities, including determining collected species, establishing a price index system and adjusting collection system software.

Article 11: The Information Collection Center is responsible for the aggregation, statistics and analysis of information, and shall report to the Bureau of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture for review before uniform public release as required. Designated units may disseminate the published national aquatic product wholesale market quotations to wholesale traders in their market.

Article 12: The Bureau of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture entrusts the Information Collection Center to conduct annual assessments of each designated unit and information collector. The specific assessment scoring standards are as follows:

(1) Price information: full score 100 points. For late reporting and missed reporting without justification, 0.5 points shall be deducted for each late report, and 1 point shall be deducted for each missed report.

(2) Species transaction information: full score 100 points. For late reporting and missed reporting without justification, 0.5 points shall be deducted for each late report, and 1 point shall be deducted for each missed report.

(3) Market transaction information: full score 60 points. For late reporting and missed reporting without justification, 2.5 points shall be deducted for each late report, and 5 points shall be deducted for each missed report.

(4) Market dynamics: full score 60 points. For late reporting and missed reporting without justification, 2.5 points shall be deducted for each late report, and 5 points shall be deducted for each missed report.

(5) Where reported information is found to be obviously untrue, 5 points shall be deducted each time.
 

(6) When emergency reporting is required, 2 points shall be added for each report.

(7) When information cannot be reported in a timely manner due to force majeure factors, the Information Collection Center shall be notified in advance, and the Information Collection Center shall handle it as appropriate.

(8) To encourage all units to use computer networking, units with complete networking facilities and equipment that frequently use computer networking to transmit information shall receive a one-time bonus of 10 points each year.

Article 13: Units and information collectors with assessment scores exceeding 260 points may be rated as excellent designated units and excellent information collectors. Under any of the following circumstances, the Bureau of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture will cancel their qualifications as designated units and information collectors, retrieve their plaques and information collector letters of appointment, and announce them publicly.

(1) Failing to report information for one consecutive month without justification;

(2) Intentionally committing fraud, with no effect after persuasion;

(3) Missing daily reports cumulatively more than 50 times without justification within two years, or missing monthly reports cumulatively more than 4 times.

Article 14: The Bureau of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for the interpretation of these Measures.

Article 15: These Measures shall come into force as of the date of promulgation.