When you go to a boutique Japanese restaurant in Chengdu and order a Unadon, you probably don’t think that the eel is bred in Jiang’an County, Yibin City, and processed in Dayi County, Chengdu City.
The eels produced in the salty and fresh waters are currently unfolding a new story in Sichuan. In recent years, with the efforts of a local company in Chengdu, an industrial chain of eel breeding, processing and export is being formed.
China is the largest eel breeding and exporting country now. It has ranked first among the single aquatic products that earn foreign exchange for many years, and the annual export volume can reach more than 1 billion US dollars.
In 2021, the national eel breeding volume will be 255,300 tons, "accounting for more than 80% of the world's total." Feng Guangpeng, a researcher at the East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, introduced. Most of the more than 1,500 eel farms in the country are concentrated in southeast coastal provinces such as Guangdong and Fujian, which are more suitable for eel growth.
"But this does not mean that eels can only be farmed in the southeast coast." Shen Mingguo, chairman of Chengdu Haiguang Food Co., Ltd., who has been engaged in eel farming and processing in Fujian since the 1990s and has 30 years of farming and processing experience, said.
A data change made Shen Mingguo decide to shift the eel breeding site from the coast to the inland.
Eels are suitable to live in a water temperature of about 23 degrees Celsius, and slight changes in temperature will significantly affect the survival rate of eels. Shen Mingguo said that in recent years, the global temperature has changed, sea water temperature has risen, and the survival rate of cultured eels in the southeast coast has been declining. "It has dropped from 90% at the peak to about 60% now."
Eel has the title of "soft gold in water". The artificial breeding technology has not yet broken through, and the fry are all caught in the wild.
As the survival rate continued to decline and costs continued to rise, Shen Mingguo turned his attention to his hometown of Sichuan. He chose the farm in Jiang’an County, Yibin City, which has good water quality and a more suitable surrounding environment, and chose the processing plant in Chengdu, which is closer to the export market. . In 2009, Shen Mingguo set up an artificial eel farm in Sichuan and started the first batch of 100,000 fish fry breeding experiments. However, because the water temperature and eel growth environment were not fully controlled, the first batch of fish fry was "annihilated."
"Retest and readjust." Shen Mingguo said that until 2015, through continuous improvement of the growth environment, the survival rate of eels reached 80%.
"Eels can be exported directly from Sichuan." Not long ago, Shen Mingguo received a notice from the relevant authorities that China-Europe trains will set up special refrigerated compartments. In the future, eels can be exported directly from Sichuan to foreign countries.
According to reports, at present, the eel farms in Jiang'an County can breed 1,200 to 1,300 tons of live eels every year, and about 800 tons of cooked eel products can be obtained after processing. 99% of the processed eel products are from Qingdao Customs. Exported by sea to Japan, Russia, South Korea and other countries. Some time ago, affected by the epidemic, the shipping delivery time became longer and uncertain, and the transportation cost remained high. "One container can hold 20 tons of processed eels. I need 40 containers a year, and the transportation cost alone is 1.2 million CNY." Shen Mingguo realized that a direct export channel to overseas must be opened.
The refrigerated carriages are specially set up for the China Railway Express, which gives Shen Mingguo more confidence to expand the scale of farming. This year, Shen Mingguo plans to build 6 more eel farms, which will be able to breed 5,000 tons of finished live eels every year after they are put into operation, and the export value is expected to reach 250 million yuan.
"It can be said that this is a 'unicorn' enterprise in Sichuan's agricultural products." Zeng Kaihu, director of the Industrial Development Division of the Provincial Fisheries Bureau, said that the enterprise can drive more owners to farm, implement the development of the entire industrial chain, and create a larger scale. It is a high-end characteristic aquatic product brand with large size, superior quality, high added value and foreign exchange earning through export.
