China’s top fruit processor plans big push into RAS salmon, shrimp aquaculture

China’s leading vendor of fruit and vegetables is launching an ambitious foray into salmon and shrimp aquaculture.

The Haisheng Group, which is publicly listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, is looking at investing CNY 5 billion to CNY 10 billion (USD 800 million to USD 1.6 billion, EUR 1.3 billion to EUR 650 million) in 15 to 20 aquafarming facilities across China by 2030, the company told SeafoodSource.

After detailed research into potential locations around the country, the firm has settled on the provinces of Gansu, Guangxi, Hubei, Ningxia, and its home base of Shaanxi. It’s also planning to build a salmon farm with a projected annual output of 5,000 to 10,000 metric tons in the Bole region of Xinjiang Province, a region in China’s far west, bordering central Asia. Additionally, the firm is looking at installing a CNY 360 million (USD 54 million, EUR 46.8 million) salmon project in Qinghai province at the foothills of the Himalayas with a projected annual output of 5,000 MT.

One of Haisheng’s shrimp projects will be located in the semi-tropical region of Guangxi, near the Vietnamese border, where the company will invest CNY 160 million (USD 25.6 million, EUR 20.8 million) in a project with an annual capacity of 2,000 MT.

Haisheng aims to use recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) for its shrimp and salmon production “but in shrimp we consider the RAS and ponds mode, because [using] only RAS system will be very expensive and not profitable,” company spokesperson Simon Li told SeafoodSource.

Li said the firm has the resources and network to make a successful venture in aquaculture.

“Our company is a National Leading Enterprise for Agriculture Industrialization in China. Now we have 96 agricultural bases, with total areas of 15,000 hectares, so we will launch our projects all over the country,” he said.

Founded in 1996 in Shaanxi Province, the Haisheng Group is the world’s leading producer of juice concentrate in volume terms. The group’s publicly traded arm, China Haisheng Juice Holding Co., was listed on the Hong Kong main board in 2005, and since 2012, the firm has pursued a strategy of building a full value-chain in the growing, processing, and retailing of fruit and vegetables. The company has opened its own chain of stores, concentrating on growing urban demand for high-end fruit and vegetables. It also exports juices. 

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