East China's Shandong Province saw a 3.6 percent year-on-year decline in aquatic product export in 2008 -- the first drop since 2004, the latest customs statistics have shown.

The province exported 776,000 tons of aquatic products last year, according to the Qingdao Customs.

About 89 percent of the exports went to the European Union (EU), Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United States, with the figures broken into 276,000 tons, 170,000 tons, 136,000 tons and 108,000 tons, respectively.

Despite a slight rise of 6.7 percent and 1.5 percent in the exports to the EU and Japan, the exports to the ROK and the U.S. dropped 24.4 percent and 8 percent from the year-earlier level.

Ma Yongsheng, the head of the statistics department of the Qingdao Customs in Shandong Province, said that during the past year, the processing and export of China's aquatic products has received "an unprecedented shock."

"The aquatic enterprises have been reeling from the financial crisis, frequent food safety accidents and rising production cost," he said.

On Nov. 1, 2008, China raised the export rebate rate for aquatic products such as frozen fish fillets from 9 percent to 13 percent, and on Dec. 1, the country again raised the export rebate rate of frozen prawn and crab from 5 percent to 13 percent.

However, Shandong's export of aquatic products in November and December declined 24.3 percent and 24.4 percent from the corresponding months of the previous year, respectively.

"The government's measures have eased the cost pressure of the enterprises to some extent," said Ma, "but the recovery of the industry need a longer time."

The customs official suggested aquatic products enterprises to improve technologies for quality inspection, raise products' added value, and improve product quality to cope with a more complex external environment in 2009.