Results for Guangdong Haid, a leading supplier of feed and medications to China’s aquaculture sector, suggest consolidation of the sector is driving increased demand for both feed and antibiotics for fish farms.
Sales of aquafeed are rising as locals switch away from pork towards seafood and poultry against the backdrop of a continued African swine flu epidemic.
There was a 16 percent rise in Haid’s sales of feed to the aquatic sector in the first half of 2019, contrasting to a 6 percent drop in pig feed sales by Haid. Also, its sale of shrimp seedlings rose 11.2 percent to CNY 208 million (USD 30.2 million, EUR 27.2 million). Haid’s report for the first half of the year highlights that profit margins for Haid’s aquatic antibiotics stood at a 57.2 percent for the six months, though the company did not delineate its sales figures further.
The company also noted that unusually wet weather had led to an increase in demand for antibiotics, while prices for many staple species remain static due to increased supply.
Haid’s overall revenues totaled CNY 21.1 billion (USD 3.1 billion, EUR 2.8 billion), up 19 percent year-on-year, while profits rose 12.2 percent to CNY 674 million (USD 97.7 million, EUR 88 million).
Major agricultural conglomerates like Guangdong Haid, Tongwei Group, and New Hope Liuhe are keen to take a bigger stake in China’s fish-farming development, with the support of government for which the so-called dragon heads – companies deemed key to China’s economic development by the national government – are seen as partners in policy goals like rural poverty alleviation and food safety.
One of China’s largest agricultural conglomerates, the New Hope Liuhe Group saw sales of feed to aquaculture rise 23 percent in 2018 to 1.06 million tons, well ahead of its 8 percent growth in pig feed sales, which rose to 4.4 million tons. New Hope’s poultry feed sales rose 10 percent to 10.89 million tons.
The attractiveness of the Chinese aquaculture sector to antibiotics suppliers was underlined recently with the launch of two new products – “Aquavibra” and “Aquastem” – in China by U.S. based Kemin Aquascience.
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