A large sea cucumber farm project in northern China has been further delayed due to complications resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The farm, being built in the Yingkou Free Trade Industrial Zone, is being built at an estimated cost of USD 25 million (EUR 22.6 million) by Singapore-based Lim Shrimp Organization.
Billed as “the world’s largest indoor temperature-controlled, multi-stack, multi-story sea cucumber culture project,” construction of the farm is “still on hold, not sorted out yet,” company CEO Djames Lim told SeafoodSource.
A COVID-related lockdown in the area “didn't help,” said Lim.
Construction on the site was completed in 2021, but operations were stalled by a lack of follow-through by the local government to connect it to the local power grid.
Lim said he’s eager to bring the facility online, even though he said China’s zero-COVID policy and related pandemic controls are denting domestic demand for sea cucumber.
“Restaurants are not doing so well as China's lockdown policy is scaring people off,” he said.
Even soccer’s FIFA World Cup, beginning 20 November in Qatar, won’t help seafood consumption in China, Lim said.
“People are still scared of public gatherings," Lim told SeafoodSource. "Elsewhere like in Asia, all is back to normal.”
Photo courtesy of Lim Shrimp Organization
