Fujian Zhengguan Fishery Development Co. has announced construction on its new krill fishing and processing vessel has begun.
The Fu Yuan Yu 9199 will be China’s largest krill craft and will be equipped with pump-suction fishing and first-stage processing equipment, according to the company, which claims it’s spending CNY 690 million (USD 96.6 million, EUR 96.6 million) on the 132-meter-long vessel.
Described by Zhengguan as the first krill vessel to be built with Chinese technology, the Fu Yuan Yu 9199 will join the company’s much older trawler, the 102-meter Fu Yuan Yu 9818, built in 1981, which is the company’s only vessel listed on the ARK website.
The company also claims to have spent CNY 916 (USD 128.2 million, EUR 128.2 million) on a krill-processing industrial park in its home city of Fuzhou, on China’s southeastern coast. The facility will have an annually capacity of 150,000 metric tons, including krill oil, krill protein peptides, and other krill-derived products.
Fujian Zhengquan is a member of Association of Responsible Krill Harvesting Companies (ARK), alongside Aker BioMarine, CNFC, Dongwon Industries Co, Jeong-IL Corp., Liaoning Pelagic Fisheries Co., PescaChile, and Rimfrost. Together, the firms make up 85 percent of the krill-fishing industry in the Antarctic.
In recent years, a number of Chinese fishing companies have announced the construction of new vessels to target the Antarctic krill fishery. But a rise in shipbuilding costs and a struggle to staff the technically demanding vessels has stalled the plans of several of those firms to move into the fishery.
Image courtesy of Fujian Zhengguan Fishery Development Co.
