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Ningbo Large Yellow Fish Swimming Southward to Strengthen Industry Chain

After four months of breeding to enable the fish in Ningde Fujian to survive the winter, 240,000 large yellow croakers have been transferred to 6 aquaculture cites in Sanmen Bay from Yiqiao Aquaculture Cooperation in Xiangshan. Zhang Jincheng, head of the cooperation, said that the sea in Fujian is warmer, and that the croakers weigh on average 150g, which can come into the market in October this year.

An increasing number of aquaculture farmers now resort to a migration method of breeding, which is to breed the fish in Southern China during winters and transfer it back to Ningbo when spring comes. “We have seen a rise in the survival rate, quality of fish and profits after we adopted this cross-provincial breeding method,” said Zhang Jincheng. Such a method brings marked benefits to aquaculture farmers. The wholesale price of local yellow croakers from his cooperation last autumn was 55 yuan per kilogram, which was more than 20 yuan higher than that of the croakers in Fujian.

Daiqu Large Yellow Croakers are a rising star in the aquaculture industry in Ningbo, to which the Aquaculture R&D Department in Ningbo has devoted a decade. According to the Head of Ningbo Research Institute of Ocean and Fisheries

Sciences, the aquaculture production in Ningbo has encountered some bottleneck these years given the limitations of breeding space in coastal area, so we need help from other regions to leverage the breeding advantage of our croakers. This way we can expand our yellow croakers industry to areas and provinces outside Ningbo and tap into the potential in the industry.

The research institute has unveiled a new species of croaker named Yongdai No.1. This is the 6th generation of Daiqu large yellow croaker, and has attracted many famous aquaculture farmers from Taizhou and Wenzhou with its sleek shape and short breeding cycle. Currently, Daiqu large yellow fish bred locally in Ningbo number only 78,000, far from meeting market demand. Wu Jiajiang from the large yellow croaker association in Nanji Island in Pingyang Wenzhou said that many aquaculture farmers in Nanji have shifted to Ningbo Daiqu large yellow croakers because it’s a quality species, and that they are much sought after despite that fact they cost twice as much as the large yollow croakers bred in Fujian.

As the yellow croakers industry is growing southward, the construction of breeding base in southern China is also picking up speed. This year, Xiangshan Bay Aquaculture joined hands with Fujian companies and succeeded in the first cross-provincial breeding, providing 35 million Daiqu large yellow croakers to markets in surrounding areas.

The annual yield of Daiqu large yellow croakers bred locally reaches 1500 metric tons. With progress in breeding, tons of Daiqu large yellow croakers are swimming to south of Zhejiang and north of Fujian, which expands Daiqu large yellow croakers industry. The yield in 2019 is expected to be doubled and reach 10 thousand metric tons in three years

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