The new vitality of barren mining area and the largest stock of murray cod parent fish...... Laixi introduced Qicai Seed to produce 50 million high-end fish fry every year

Qingdao Qicai Seed Technology Co., Ltd

With the success of the artificial breeding technology developed by Qingdao Qicai Seed Technology Co., Ltd., Australia's rare fish - Murray cod, China not only bid farewell to the history of importing murray cod fry, but also about to export the Murray cod produced in Qingdao to its origin. The first phase of the "Laixi City Qicai Farming, Fishing and Light Integrated Smart Agriculture Demonstration Park" project built by the company in Hetoudian Town of Laixi City was completed and put into operation, becoming the seed industry base of murray cod. As the largest enterprise in the world, the project can produce 20 million murray cod fry, 500 tons of commercial fish and 500 tons of high-end vegetables every year after the completion of the project. On June 26, the reporter came to the project base to reveal the little-known story behind the aquaculture and breeding of murray cod in Qingdao.

Scene: a pool of ten thousand pounds a year

Murray cod, also known as Australian spot, dragon spot, worm pattern cod. It is a freshwater fish species from Australia, which is still relatively unfamiliar to Qingdao people. Laixi City Qicai Farming, Fishing and Light Integrated Smart Agriculture Demonstration Park, located in Laixi City Hetoudian Town, at present, the project has been completed and put into operation. The reporter noted that the first phase of the project covers an area of about 50 acres, and the modern intelligent breeding workshop is lined up, which has become a model base for modern fisheries facilities.                                                                                                                                                                                

    Into the breeding and breeding workshop of the enterprise, the breeding ponds of different specifications are neatly arranged. In the fry tank, the fry of murray cod are densely packed. More than 7,000 8-12 years old murray cod parents swim freely in the pool, the maximum weight of the fish up to 50 pounds. Liu Ming, general manager of Qingdao Qicai Seed Technology Co., Ltd., introduced that this project is transformed from the original barren mining area, which was still a mining area many years ago, with poor soil and lack of nutrients, and it is difficult to use. The project fully revitalized land resources through land leveling and other ways, built a new factory for the development of industrial aquaculture, the development of facility agriculture, turned environmental weaknesses into an ecological model of facility agriculture, and made the mining area full of new vitality.                                                                        

    Liu Ming introduced that the murray cod seed workshop is mainly used for parent fish culture, spawning incubation and fry cultivation, while the murray cod cultivation demonstration workshop is mainly used for commercial fish farming. At present, one park has realized the full-cycle production of "spawning - hatching - nurturing - cultivation" of murray cod. Relying on the self-developed fully closed circulating aquaculture system, the conventional aquaculture density of the aquaculture tank is maintained at 100-200 kg per cubic meter of water, and the maximum can reach 320 kg, which is more than 6 times the average level at home and abroad. A 30 cubic meter tank can produce 10,000 kilograms of murray cod per year, with an output value of 500,000 yuan. The breeding efficiency is one hundred times that of ordinary pond farming, and one mu is top of one hundred mu, demonstrating the leapfrog productivity and unique charm of facility agriculture.

Behind the scenes: Breeding successfully bid farewell to imports

Qingdao Qicai Seed Technology Co., Ltd., the person in charge of the Ocean University of China Fisheries professor Gong Qingli introduced that Qicai Seed is led by the Ocean University of China scientific research team, is a collection of aquaculture, farming, processing, sales, agricultural new technology research and development and service in one of the science and technology enterprises. As the headquarters base of the circular agriculture model and industrial fishery of the colorful seed industry, Laixi has taken the lead in realizing the transformation of scientific and technological achievements from "bookshelf" to "goodsshelf", and successfully answered the problem of how to solve the "two skins" of scientific research and industry.

   "Murray cod is a high-quality freshwater fish native to Australia, with high nutritional value and economic value, and is Australia's 'national treasure fish' and 'state banquet fish'." Gong Qingli introduced that as early as 2011, he and his team introduced the first batch of fish fry from Australia through the support of the "948" project of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and at the same time, they selected and bred their parents through group breeding and other technical means. In 2017, some of the selected parent fish reached sexual maturity, at that time, Australian experts were hired to guide the breeding of murray cod, but because Australia has developed and bred murray cod under semi-natural conditions, no in-depth research has been conducted on artificial breeding, and after the experts came, millions of losses were not successfully bred. Since then, the company team decided to develop its own artificial breeding technology for murray cod to fill the gap in related fields in China. Because the team already has the technical foundation of marine fish breeding such as Turbot, after two years of efforts, it finally broke through the large-scale artificial breeding of millions of fish in 2019, and is the first company in the world to successfully achieve large-scale artificial breeding of murray cod. At present, the self-developed "Murray cod Large-Scale Artificial Breeding Technology and Industrial High-Density Circulating Water Culture Technology" has been assessed as the international leading level. Since then, the domestic import of murray cod fry has not only become a history, but also the domestic breeding and farming of murray cod, but also about to be exported to Australia.                 

Why it's great: Broodstock can live for 100 years

Liu Ming introduced that the parent fish can survive for nearly a hundred years under normal circumstances, and the spawning cycle is about 40 years. After more than 10 years of accumulation, more than 7,000 8-12 years old murray cod parents have been selected and bred, becoming the largest enterprise in the world, and fully realizing the domestic substitution of murray cod fry. The existing parent fish reserves can support the annual production of 50,000 to 100,000 tons of commercial fish in the future, achieve an industrial scale of 10 billion, and provide a solid foundation for promoting the "Seed Industry Revitalization" plan and solving the problem of "stuck neck" in the seed industry.    

"The entire murray cod seed industry workshop has 40 hatching tanks for artificial fertilized eggs hanging net hatching, the current hatching success rate has reached more than 70%, a single batch can hatch 1 million fish fry." Liu Ming introduced that after the fry hatching, the fry breeding system will be transferred to this side to continue to cultivate and domesticate, and it only takes 1 year from hatching to commercial fish sales. There are more than 400 breeding barrels with a diameter of 1.5 meters, which can cultivate 5 million fish fry in a single season, and 20 million fish fry in a year, while Australia's annual production is about 3 million. In addition, the parent fish and fry system are fully enclosed circulating water system, combined with biosecurity technology, and the quality is very good, and it is the first enterprise in the world that can make specific pathogen free (SPF) grade Murray cod, that is, these fish have no pathogens and parasites, and can be eaten directly raw, and food safety is effectively guaranteed. At the same time, it is also the only outbound aquatic animal farm and transit farm in Qingdao, with export qualification.

Extension: The Laixi Model will be rolled out across the country

At present, the project has implemented the modular and industrial production of the equipment, and then digitized and automated the equipment to realize the real-time transmission of the data and the automatic control of the equipment. By digitization, it is effective to overcome the environmental factors of climate and disease, and completely leave the dilemma of aquaculture "to eat for the day" and realize the industrial upgrading of fishery industrialization.

"The water in the system is mainly from the mine pit, and at the other end of the workshop is the water treatment equipment area, the cycle is used by multiple processing parts, the daily change of water is about 2%, and the tail line is very small." At the same time, the water can be transported to the intelligent greenhouse of the park to grow crops, which basically implements the full use of water resources, Liu Ming said. This kind of terrestrial circulating water technology, currently in the country is also the leading level. In addition to Laixi headquarters, the company has implemented the copy promotion of the model through the EPC+O model, which has been able to promote the production of the model in Jianhe county, Guizhou province, which has been helped by the agricultural rural village department, and is expected to implement production in the second half of the year to promote the effective connection between the local poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. In addition to cooperation with the whole country, the future of the Laixi model will be promoted in the country and promotes the development of "the breeding-culture-promotion model".

Dialogue: Raising Qingdao murray cod to the whole country

As the general manager of Qingdao Qicai Seed Technology Co., Ltd., looking at the former mining area into a modern facility fishing base, he always has a broader and better blueprint in his heart.

Reporter: The murray cod sold to where today?

Liu Ming: There are two main routes at the sales end. The first is the sale of fish fry, 5-10 cm fish fry will be sold to downstream farming customers all over the country, at present, the domestic use is basically our fish fry, no need to import from abroad. The second is the sale of commercial fish, mainly sold to first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, Michelin and other high-end restaurants and some baby food manufacturers are also ordering.

Reporter: What about the price of murray cod? Will Qingdao market be listed in large numbers in the future?  

Liu Ming: At present, the retail price of murray cod is 80 to 90 yuan per catty. Some high-end restaurants in Qingdao are selling in small quantities. With the increased production of breeding and breeding, it is expected to be mass-marketed in the future.     

Reporter: What are the plans for future development?

Liu Ming: The base has reserved land for the second phase of the project. It is planned to build an annual output of 20 million Mandarin fish transfer seedling workshop and 10 million salmon seedling workshop. Construction is expected to start in the second half of this year and be completed and put into operation by the end of 2024. The company will devote itself to the two major strategies of "Seed Industry Revitalization" and "Rural Revitalization" to provide a solution for the development of China's modern facility fishery.