Regional differences and dynamic evolution of the modernization level of China’s fishery industry chain

Introduction China’s fisheries industry chain (FIC) modernization faces bottlenecks such as weak infrastructure, insufficient regional coordination, and limited resilience, with prominent issues of uneven regional development. However, there is currently a lack of systematic research on its regional disparity patterns and dynamic evolution mechanisms. This research gap restricts the in-depth understanding of high-quality fisheries development pathways and the formulation of effective policies. Methods To systematically reveal the regional differentiation and evolution laws of the modernization level of China’s FIC, this study constructed a comprehensive evaluation index system covering four dimensions: foundation, resilience, coordination, and sustainability. Based on panel data from 27 provinces in China from 2016 to 2023, it comprehensively applied methods including the entropy weight method, Dagum Gini coefficient, Local Moran’s I, kernel density estimation, and spatial Markov chain to conduct multi-dimensional analysis of the modernization level, regional differences, spatial correlation, and dynamic evolution of the FIC. Results and discussion The results show that: (1) The national modernization level of the FIC has steadily improved but with fluctuations, and the development of each dimension is unbalanced; (2) The overall regional differences show a narrowing trend, and inter-regional differences are the main source; (3) The modernization level of the FIC exhibits significant positive spatial agglomeration; (4) The modernization level of the FIC presents a stepped distribution of “Eastern China > Central China > Western China”; (5) The hierarchical structure of the modernization level of the FIC is generally stable, with a low possibility of cross-level transfer, and high-level regions have a positive spatial spillover effect on adjacent regions. Research significance Theoretically, this study constructs a comprehensive evaluation framework for the modernization of the industrial chain applicable to the fishery field, providing methodological reference for related research. Practically, it accurately identifies the sources of regional differences and the mechanism of spatial dependence, offering empirical basis for optimizing regional resource allocation, formulating differentiated coordination policies, and promoting high-quality and sustainable development of the fishery industry. It also provides reference value for other developing countries in advancing the modernization of the agricultural industrial chain.