China’s use of feed for aquaculture is set to rise sharply in coming years as seafood prices climb and environmental enforcement sees to the closure of smaller, unlicensed aquaculture ponds, according to executives at Shuang Bao Tai Group – one of the fastest growing players in China’s rapidly consolidating feed sector.
Shuang Bao Tai announced recently the opening of six new feed plants in the first half of the year, adding to the 70 feed facilities the firm already operates. Efficiency and mechanization has ensured that each plant functions with only 40 workers and at lower costs than the firm’s older plants, according to a company press statement.
A clampdown by China’s newly restructured environmental enforcement agency on freshwater pollution has seen a sharp rise in the number of eviction notices issued to aquaculture facilities in reservoirs, lakes, and rivers in 2018. This in turn has pressured prices, with reports that freshwater staples like grass carp have risen in price from CNY 12/kg (USD 1.7/kg, EUR 1.5/kg) in 2016 to CNY 15/kg (USD 2.2/kg, EUR 1.8/kg) this summer in the central provinces of Hubei and Hunan, where much of China’s freshwater supply comes from.
The total number of firms in China’s animal/aquaculture feed sector fell from 15,376 in 2015 to 7,492 in 2017, according to the country’s agriculture ministry. Most firms supply the huge pork sector, but several – such as Tongwei Group, Guangdong Haid Group, and Shuang Bao Tai – supply feed to aquaculture, pork, and poultry firms.
Photo courtesy of the University of Florida
