Despite the plunge in salmon sales in China in the past week due to its false linkage to an outbreak of COVID-19 in Beijing, salmonids will be core to China’s future aquaculture investment, according to a leading executive in the aquafeed industry in China.
Salmonids are the key species in large offshore installations being planned and built in China, according to Alan Xiaoqing Qian, managing director of BioMar Tongwei (Wuxi) Biotech, a joint venture established by BioMar Group and Tongwei Co. Ltd.
“Salmonid farming, despite the low-quantity [production], has a leading position in terms of industrialization and technology,” he told SeafoodSource. “It is the preferred species for new and large-scale investments such as offshore projects announced in recent years, which play an important role in the transformation process of the industry in China.”
China’s tightening of environmental and land-use rules, which has created a massive shift in the country’s aquaculture sector, has in turn created opportunities for Biomar Tongwei, Qian said. The Chinese aquaculture industry has in recent years “sped up the pace towards greener development," which sets higher requirements on farming practices and equipment, Qian said. The trend is the same across China, he noted, though “development stages vary significantly across regions and species.”
BioMar Tongwei (Wuxi) Biotech aims to leverage BioMar’s global expertise in high-performance aquaculture feed and Tongwei’s extensive networks in China. The firm aims to be the market leader in high-performance aquaculture feed in China, Qian said. The JV’s new plant in Wuxi is also supplying feeds for locally popular species like large yellow croaker and largemouth bass.
“[This type of aquaculture] previously relied heavily on the feeding of trash fish,” Qian said. “As feed is a crucial part of the aquaculture value-chain, the efficiency, quality. and sustainability of the feeds are also becoming more and more important. By working closely with our customers including salmon and trout farmers and utilizing our experiences accumulated from other markets, we thrive in finding innovative feed solutions that are adaptive to local farming conditions and market requirements.”
Besides salmon, the JV is also looking at moving into other sectors of Chinese aquaculture.
“Shrimp can be another species where we may explore synergies between China and other regional operations in the BioMar group,” Qian said.
Before building the new Wuxi plant, BioMarTongwei imported “high-quality feed from Denmark, with the lowest environmental footprint and dedicated technical service to assist farmers to achieve the best economic performance, while minimizing the negative impact of farming on the environment," Qian said.
Photo courtesy of BioMar
