China could replace imported salmon with domestically produced product, according to a leading Chinese expert in offshore aquaculture.
China’s Yellow Sea is well-placed for offshore aquaculture which could be worth “hundreds of billions” of yuan, according to China Ocean University [Da Yang Da Xue] Professor Shuang Lin.
Lin is the brains behind an offshore salmon-breeding project underway in the Yellow Sea and heads the Yellow Sea Cold Water Group Green Aquaculture Science and Technology Innovation Project, a government-backed project to raise salmon on China’s east coast.
Lin contends that deep-water cages 100 nautical miles offshore can produce salmon and trout to compete with imports. Shuang said he’s confident of breeding five-kilogram sized salmon but adds that finance will be vital to realizing Chinese ambitions of salmon self-sufficiency.
“We will have the quality to compete but we will also be more competitive [than imports] in both freshness and price,” Lin said.
The Yellow Sea – a stretch of water connecting China with the two Koreas and Japan – is also the focus of a separate salmon-breeding pilot project spearheaded by Rizhao Wanzefeng Fishing Co. and Wuchuan Heavy Industry, a maker of maritime platforms and vessels.
On land, meanwhile, seafood processor Oriental Ocean has been raising small quantities of salmon and selling them in live tanks in Chinese supermarkets.
