The giant salamander, the world's largest living amphibian, is also commonly known as the "baby fish" because of its folklore that sounds like a baby crying. It is an animal of the same era as dinosaurs, and now dinosaurs are long extinct, so it is also known as a "living fossil". According to the list released by the Fisheries and Fisheries Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in 2021, giant salamanders (wild populations) are national second-class key protected wild animals.
The baby fish prefers to live in deep mountain streams with clear water, rapid water and caves, and is widely distributed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Yellow River and Pearl River basins. Due to its high economic value, in the eighties and nineties of last century, this species, known as "living fossil", was over-poached, coupled with river pollution, the ecological environment was destroyed, resulting in a sharp decline in the population, and was later listed as a national second-class protected animal.
Later, with the maturity of artificial breeding technology in the mainland, artificial breeding baby fish began to enter the market. Due to the high price and considerable profits, a large amount of capital has poured into the market for farmed baby fish. "Ten years ago, farmed baby fish easily made millions a year, and many people hyped baby fish like fried bluegrass." Recently, speaking of the hot scene of that year, Xie Ciyong, a former big doll fish farmer, remembers it vividly. However, since about 2013, the price of farmed baby fish has fallen all the way, once sold for more than 1,000 yuan per catty, and now the wholesale price has fallen to 25 yuan per catty. In Hanzhong, Shaanxi, the largest artificially farmed doll fish producing area in China, the wholesale price has even dropped to about 20 yuan a catty.
With the decline in the "value" of artificial baby fish, farmers have also reduced production, withdrawn or transformed, and Xie Ciyong has now been a bullfrog breeder for 5 years. Once a "sky-high" farmed baby fish, why did the price fall all the way down the altar? What's really going on behind the scenes? In this regard, Red Star News reporters have carried out in-depth investigations in the past few days...
Baby fish farmed in a bionic environment
Large farmers:
"The market sells more than 1,000 yuan a catty at its best"
The annual income of baby fish has fallen to tens of yuan per catty
Xie Ciyong is the first person in Guanghan, Sichuan Province to breed baby fish. Under his leadership, the local doll fish breeding cooperative was established, driving more than 100 farmers to raise doll fish to increase income and become rich, and its deeds were reported by CCTV.
Farmed baby fish
On September 8 this year, in Gaoping Town, Guanghan City, 53-year-old Xie Ciyong was busy in the breeding base, and the 57-acre breeding base was full of frogs. That morning, he received a lot of phone calls, and from time to time someone ordered bullfrogs, and only one call was for baby fish. His baby fish farming base is a few kilometers away, and he rarely returns there today, mainly to the workers.
"The (farming) baby fish market is too low, now the price has fallen to the bottom, basically no profit, I have been switching to bullfrog breeding for five years." Walking by the frog field, Xie Ciyong told the Red Star News reporter about his experience of breeding baby fish.
This chat, he seems to return to the "red" past of breeding baby fish.
Xie Ciyong said that in the 90s of last century, he worked in a joint venture and began to contact the breeding and sale of wild animals such as pheasants (except those prohibited by national laws and regulations).
In 2004, he left his job and returned to his hometown of Guanghan to engage in farming, and once raised pheasants in Hanwang Town, Mianzhu City. At the end of 2008, he went to a friend's place in Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province, to investigate the breeding of baby fish.
Xie Ciyong told the Red Star News reporter that he felt that raising baby fish was very ecological, and the market price of breeding baby fish at that time was also very considerable. However, baby fish is a national second-class key protected wild animal, and only the second generation of captive-bred offspring can be eaten and traded, and artificial breeding requires a license. After applying for the relevant permits, he began to farm baby fish, first buying hundreds of fry and learning as he went. After spending two years learning the technique of raising baby fish, he cooperated with people to raise thousands of baby fish, and later established a baby fish farming cooperative, which can produce about 100,000 baby fish per year at its largest. "The best time for the market is from 2008 to 2012, when it was easy to make millions a year." Xie Ciyong said.
According to the "People's Republic of China Concession Measures for the Utilization of Aquatic Wild Animals" issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, domestication, breeding and operation and utilization must be in accordance with the provisions of the "Wildlife Protection Law", "Regulations on the Protection of Aquatic Wild Animals" and other laws and regulations, and apply for the "artificial breeding license" and "operation and utilization license" in the provincial fishery department.
"When the market is at its best, farmed baby fish is sold for more than 1,000 yuan a catty, or even 2,000 yuan a catty, and a farmed baby fish fry is 1,080 yuan." Xie Ciyong told the Red Star News reporter that because the market is good and the price is high, many people enter the baby fish breeding market with funds. At that time, farmed baby fish was a "hard currency", and there were fish in the market. He gave an example, when the market was at its hottest, the breeding of baby fish fry was also rising, "We went to buy fish fry, and we thought that the fish fry were rare to count, so we discussed with the seller to exchange a pound of 100 yuan bills for a pound of fish fry, and the seller still did not do it." ”
However, after the "boom", the artificial breeding of baby fish began to decline.
Xie Ciyong said that since 2013, the price of farmed baby fish has been lower, but there are still profit margins. In 2014, he invested more than 6 million yuan in Gaoping Town, Guanghan City to build a doll fish domestication and breeding base for large-scale aquaculture. "The baby fish has high requirements for environmental water quality, and the optimal water temperature for breeding is 16~22 °C, and if it exceeds 25 °C, it will feel uncomfortable and will die in large numbers."
The baby fish he farms are not only sold in his own farmhouses and bases, but also in Chengdu Shuangliu wholesale stores. Until 2016, each catty of farmed baby fish could still be sold for 120 yuan to 150 yuan, but in 2017 it fell to less than 100 yuan per catty, and now the retail price has fallen all the way to more than 30 yuan a catty.
As prices fall, farmers' production has also shrunk. "Originally, at most, 100,000 baby fish could be produced a year, but then the market slowly shrank, and now the farm only raises about 30,000 fish a year, a decrease of 70%." Xie Ciyong told Red Star News that his restaurant sells one-tenth of the food, and the rest is sold to the wholesale market.
Looking at the frog field in front of him, Xie Ciyong no longer has the original passion for doll fish farming, "The doll fish are all managed by workers, I don't care, there is no profit, only enough for labor wages." ”
Now, he cares more about the 57 acres of frog fields in front of him, which can produce 7.8 million catties of bullfrogs every year, which can bring a considerable income.
Fall off the altar:
Doll fish faucet breeding enterprises transformed into deep processing
Retail investors have basically withdrawn and many large-scale farmers have reduced production and transformed
On September 11 this year, after a heavy rainfall, Longmen Mountain was cloudy and misty.
In Luoshui Town, Shifang City, Deyang, Sichuan, Gao Anyou, owner of Sichuan Xinxiyuan Biotechnology Company (hereinafter referred to as Xinxiyuan Company), is checking the growth of baby fish at the farm. The company is an enterprise based on the extraction of whole fish from giant salamander, and Gao Anyou is both the legal representative and the technical authority.
Xinxiyuan Company's breeding base in Shifang
Gao Anyou, 60, has been engaged in aquaculture since 1984. At first, it mainly farmed and bred domestic fish, and later involved the breeding of special fish such as yellowtail and sea bass. "I started farming baby fish in 2009, and I thought it was expensive and rare." Facing the Red Star News reporter, Gao Anyou said the reason for breeding baby fish.
Gao Anyou introduced that as early as 2008, their company tried to raise two baby fish. After the successful farming, in 2009, the company obtained the doll fish domestication and breeding license and the operation and utilization license, and began to officially participate in the artificial breeding of doll fish.
"In 2009, we bought 1,996 baby fish fry for 500 yuan." Gao Anyou told Red Star News that at that time, baby fish fry were very expensive, and he bought them from Hanzhong and Hunan in Shaanxi Province for a lot of money. After arriving at the breeding base, the baby fish fry were carefully raised, and the fry later became the basis for large-scale farming by the company, and some high-quality baby fish were selected as breeding fish.
In the following years, the market responded well. Gao Anyou established a baby fish breeding center in the deep mountains of Shifang Yinghua Town, not only raising his own households, but also driving the surrounding villagers to become rich through the "company + farmer" method. He said that when the scale was largest, more than 100,000 baby fish were produced every year, "There are more than 200 farmers who follow them, and I recycle them at a price of 600 yuan per catty, which can provide farmers with a profit of four to five million yuan a year." ”
At that time, the market was also good, and the baby fish raised by their company were sold to Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and other places. The company also runs a restaurant to make baby fish into dishes. "When the price is good, the breeding of baby fish is more than 1,000 yuan a catty, and our restaurant makes 1,680 yuan a catty." At that time, he said, eating baby fish was considered a "luxury", and the profits from farming and selling it were considerable.
Fish from farmed dolls is made into dishes and served on the table
The inflection point appeared in 2013.
"At that time, the company was planning to open four chain stores in Sichuan, but the price of baby fish suddenly began to fall, and the contract for one store in Neijiang was signed, but it still gave up decisively." Gao Anyou said with emotion, "Some people raise dolls to make money, and many people smash on the doll fish!" ”
Around 2017, the price of farmed baby fish dropped to 100 yuan per pound. Due to the high cost of breeding and not much profit, surrounding farmers no longer farm, and Gao Anyou's company has also reduced the scale of breeding. At the same time, the company has established a rice field conservation and factory breeding base of 10,000 mu in Nanquan Town, which is mainly used for the breeding of baby fish and bait fish.
Gao Anyou admits that when the breeding baby fish market was hot, he was thinking about transformation. Through cooperation with domestic research institutes, it is hoped that the baby fish can be "medicated" extracted. After the baby fish market was cold, it strengthened his confidence in transformation. The baby fish deep processing project was established in 2009, "and Sichuan University West China School of Public Health and Chengdu University jointly conducted research." ”
In Xinxiyuan Company, the Red Star News reporter saw that the company showed the "Research Report on the Deep Processing Project of Giant Salamander" of the Food and Engineering New Technology Laboratory of Sichuan University, the "Inspection Report" of the Toxicology Experiment of Giant Salamander Beverage, and the "Inspection Report" of the Analysis and Testing Center of the School of Public Health of Sichuan University, which are all research on the deep processing of farmed baby fish.
After 10 years of research, after repeated extraction and trial production, the key technology of whole fish extraction of baby fish has finally been broken. In 2019, a set of whole industrial chain with baby fish breeding, breeding and finishing as the main links gradually formed. "At present, none of the baby fish raised by our company are sold, and all of them are further processed into products. It has launched 4 products, including two oral liquids, one protein powder and one morning food, with an annual output value of 8 million yuan, which is gradually growing. Gao Anyou introduced that the company has obtained 7 patents.
On the day of the Red Star News reporter's interview, the Sichuan Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Deyang Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and experts also came to its company to investigate and understand the rice-fish co-breeding and baby fish intensive processing projects.
Gao Anyou believes that baby fish contains a variety of natural active substances, has extremely high nutritional value and important medicinal value, has the effect of improving human immune function, enhancing human disease resistance and other effects, "The expert team is also studying, I think this is a big market." ”
In the past few days, Red Star News reporters have visited many places in Sichuan and Shaanxi and learned that at present, retail farmers have basically withdrawn from baby fish farming, and some large-scale farmers are still insisting, but they have either reduced production or transformed into deep processing.
Nowadays, the "brilliance" of breeding baby fish is no longer the same, and like Xie Ciyong, Gao Anyou's work focus is not on baby fish, but on the 10,000 mu rice and fish co-culture project.
Market Conditions:
Once an expensive hit, now it is like a "supermarket egg"
The lowest wholesale price is 20 yuan a catty, which is already an ordinary dish
Red Star News reporters learned in an interview that southern cities such as Guangdong, Sichuan and Chongqing have always been the mainstream market for the consumption of artificial baby fish.
Li Yuanfang operates two wholesale stores in Guangzhou and Foshan aquatic products trading markets, focusing on the distribution of high-end catering ingredients for 10 years, wholesale dozens of aquatic products and seafood, and supplying more than 500 catering enterprises across the country. In the past 10 years, he has also witnessed the whole process of breeding baby fish falling off the altar, once thousands of yuan a pound of breeding baby fish is one of his wholesale explosions, at most a year wholesale of about 600,000 jin, he also built two baby fish farms. "Now we supply to the store at a wholesale price of 30 yuan a catty, and a wholesale of about 30,000 catties a year, and the farm does not raise baby fish."
The once popular baby fish has now fallen off the altar, like an egg sold in a supermarket, "it is a side product." Li Yuan told the Red Star News reporter that many red and white happy events in rural Guangdong will arrange a baby fish, which is already a commonplace ordinary dish.
According to him, due to the trouble of slaughtering baby fish, some farmers in Shaanxi make it into semi-finished products such as fish fillets, which are mainly supplied to some hot pot restaurants in Chengdu and Chongqing, "This is better, which not only ensures the quality, but also allows consumers to cook and eat conveniently." But what causes farmers a headache is that the fish heads, bones, etc. of the baby fish in stock cannot be sold. ”
In Sichuan Deyang Yuquan Wholesale Market, fishmonger Uncle Mao wants to wholesale fish every day, and occasionally helps customers buy some farmed baby fish, and the wholesale price of about 5 catties is 28 yuan per catty.
On September 13, at the Qingshiqiao Seafood Wholesale Market in Chengdu, Sichuan, Red Star News reporters randomly visited some merchants, and only one merchant was wholesaling baby fish. Why not sell farmed baby fish? Many merchants told Red Star News reporters, first, the price of breeding baby fish is low and there is no profit margin; Second, the sale of farmed baby fish requires the application of the "Business Utilization License".
"Wholesale 25 yuan a catty, a large amount of Chengdu urban area can be sent, the price is already the lowest. Recently, though, prices have started to rise. Ms. Wang, a merchant in the wholesale market, said that the baby fish she wholesals are farmed in the deep mountains of Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province, and usually few people buy them, and they should be more during the New Year festival. When a month is small, it sells two or three thousand catties, and when it is more, it sells four or five thousand catties. She told the Red Star News reporter that the main chefs who come here to wholesale baby fish are the township cooks for the dam banquet, "It is still very face-saving to hold a dam banquet." ”
The Red Star News reporter learned that in Hanzhong, Shaanxi, the largest production area of artificial dollfish in the country, the wholesale price of doll fish has even dropped to 20 yuan per catty. The amount is particularly large, and it can also be appropriately discounted, and it can even be reduced to less than 20 yuan per pound.
In the catering market around Chengdu, Sichuan, Red Star News reporters visited and learned that the breeding of baby fish is mainly based on soup, braised and hot pot. In some ordinary restaurants, the price of farmed baby fish dishes is even lower than that of common eel and mandarin fish.
"Compared with ordinary fish, baby fish slaughter is more troublesome, and there is also a certain degree of attention to cooking technology." Mr. Yin, a Sichuan restaurant insider, told Red Star News that baby fish is consumed less by ordinary people and is used as a restaurant specialty. He analyzed, first, consumers feel that it is "expensive"; Secondly, there are few sales channels for baby fish, and only some large supermarkets or aquatic specialty stores sell it. In addition, many people do not know how to slaughter cooking.
Online, Red Star News reporters saw that the price of artificially bred baby fish on platforms such as Jingdong and Taobao ranges from 28-40 yuan per catty, and the weight of a single tail ranges from 1 catty to more than 20 catties. The origins are Shaanxi, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Hubei, Guangxi and so on. They are shipped from the place of origin, and some merchants also come with special recipes.
Fish from farmed dolls is made into dishes and served on the table
Red Star News reporter as a consumer randomly consulted the customer service of several stores, the farmed baby fish under 5 pounds is slightly more expensive, the larger the fish, the cheaper, some merchants also posted quality inspection reports. "Generally, 5 to 10 pounds have the best taste, and the taste is worse if it is too large." "The whole process is cold chain transportation, ensuring that the fish you receive is fresh and there is a compensation for dead fish." A customer service said.
"Our company has complete documents, allowing you to eat baby fish legally and compliantly." Many merchants also affirmed that wild baby fish is a national second-class key protected wild animal, and only the second generation of captive-bred offspring can be eaten and traded, and must also obtain a license to trade. Some merchants sell doll fish with identity QR codes, and the source of relevant information can be queried and traced through identification plates and identification codes.
On the Ai purchasing platform, the wholesale price of farmed baby fish is mostly 28 yuan per catty. Generally, the batch starts with more than 10 pieces, and the wholesale doll fish merchants are mainly merchants in Hanzhong, Shaanxi, Shiyan, Hubei, Meishan and other places. The Red Star News reporter called a wholesaler called "Mian County Chenhui Salamander" in Hanzhong, Shaanxi, and the merchant introduced, "If the amount is small, it will cost at least 30 yuan a catty, and the amount can be discounted, and the wholesale amount is more than 200 catties, 28 yuan a catty." ”
Expert Analysis:
Aquaculture technology is mature, production is increasing, and supply is oversupply
The decline in consumer acceptance in recent years is also a major reason for the price reduction
Why has the artificial breeding of baby fish fallen from the "sky-high price" of thousands of yuan a catty all the way to the "civilian price" of tens of yuan a catty, from a once explosive item to a common product like a supermarket egg? What's really going on behind the scenes? What factors caused farmed baby fish to fall off the altar?
In this regard, Wang Qiang, vice president of Sichuan Fisheries School and member of the Chinese Fisheries Society, made an in-depth analysis and interpretation to Red Star News reporters.
"The baby fish is not a fish, but an amphibian. Once its breeding technology breaks through, breeding is not difficult. Wang Qiang introduced that with the breakthrough of aquaculture technology, special fish farming has achieved normalization. "Rarities" such as doll fish become less attractive.
In the past, the biggest difficulty in breeding baby fish was seed breeding, and this technological breakthrough was relatively simple. Now Shaanxi, Sichuan and other parts of the country are breeding baby fish, the market is saturated, and even some supply exceeds demand. As for the scale of farmed baby fish in the country, Wang Qiang said that the market is constantly changing, and there is no exact data in the industry at present.
"It used to be rare, so the price was high, and I have seen restaurants sell more than 3,000 yuan a pound." Wang Qiang told Red Star News that because he has been engaged in aquaculture research for a long time, he has been to many farms in Sichuan and Shaanxi, and has also witnessed the whole process of baby fish falling from a "sky-high price" to being consumed by ordinary citizens today.
He introduced, "At the beginning, the doll fish parent was very expensive, a doll fish parent one or twenty pounds, the price is tens of thousands of yuan a piece, at that time few people mastered the doll fish breeding technology. "Later, with the maturity of baby fish seed breeding technology, the price of baby fish and fry has decreased, and the cost of breeding has also decreased." The doll fish is an amphibian reptile with strong disease resistance. As long as the water quality is fresh, the temperature and environment are suitable, it is still relatively easy to maintain. Wang Qiang said that farmed food is also more convenient, small fish, loach, etc. can be used as food, large-scale aquaculture and even frozen fish as food.
At that time, because of the breeding of baby fish to make money, a large amount of money entered, many farmers began to scale aquaculture, "This led to the early stage of entering this market to make money, the middle and late entry did not make money or even lost money." I am more in favor of using 'fried bluegrass' as a metaphor for the original baby fish farming. Wang Qiang introduced to the Red Star News reporter that after the breakthrough of breeding technology, the breeding threshold is low, a large number of farmers breed baby fish, oversupply, coupled with lagging sales, the more baby fish are raised, the more parents, the price of fry is getting cheaper and cheaper, and the price of baby fish is lower.
"One is that the farming market is mature, and the other is that consumers' acceptance of baby fish is not so high, and the price will definitely fall." Wang Qiang analyzed, another reason is the market effect, once the price of baby fish was speculated, a big reason is that consumers at that time there was a curiosity, "expensive, uneaten things, always want to try, after eating feel that the taste, taste is very general, so I am not willing to consume baby fish anymore." ”
Nowadays, ordinary families are not very accepting of doll fish, and their willingness to consume is also low. Wang Qiang analyzed that there are two main reasons, one is that the baby fish has mucus on its body, and it is troublesome to slaughter, "Many people feel that slaughtering it is cruel." "Second, the baby has a fishy smell and is difficult to cook. Generally, home cooking tastes bad, and only a few restaurants have mastered slaughtering and cooking techniques. The subcutaneous fat of baby fish is very thick, eating more will be greasy, only suitable for occasional consumption, "In fact, many artificial fish taste better than baby fish, such as mandarin fish, eel and so on." ”
Finally, Wang Qiang told the Red Star News reporter that with the increasing improvement of breeding technology, the localized aquaculture types of aquatic products are becoming more and more abundant, and the output is becoming more and more considerable, and it is difficult to maintain the high price of a certain aquatic product for a long time. Wang Qiang also suggested that in order to make the baby fish industry sustainable and healthy, it is necessary to follow the market rules, make efforts to reduce feeding costs, tap potential value, innovate and develop new products, and open up markets, so as to return the baby fish industry to rationality.
■ Extended reading
Past and present lives of doll fish:
The study believes that the economic value is extremely high
The Chinese giant salamander is a species endemic to the mainland, and the mainstream of academic circles currently believes that the giant salamander belongs to the family Cryptogill salamanders. The fossil record of the Cryptogill salamander family dates back 160 million years, while its contemporaries were long extinct. Giant salamander, commonly known as baby fish, is a national second-class key protected wild animal, and is also a key development species of agricultural industrialization and characteristic agriculture. Wild giant salamanders mostly inhabit mountain streams, like cave dwelling, and feed on aquatic animals such as fish and crabs. In terms of quantity, the Qinling Mountains of Shaanxi Province are the largest producer of giant salamanders in China.
The study shows that the giant salamander has extremely high economic value and has the prospect of extensive development and utilization in gastronomy, health care, medicine and ornamentation. Researchers believe that the liver, mucus, skin, fat and cartilage of the salamander's organs are rich in a variety of bioactive substances, such as collagen, glycoproteins, bioactive peptides, metallothionein and froggetin. Artificially bred giant salamanders have great commercial potential value.
According to the Notice on Strengthening the Standardized Operation and Utilization Management of Giant Salamander Resources Conservation issued by the former Ministry of Agriculture in 2017, after more than 20 years of protection and development, the habitat of wild populations of giant salamanders has been protected, and the population in local areas has recovered. The number of captive-domesticated breeding populations has increased significantly, and in some areas it has developed into a new industry, playing an important role in cultivating new varieties and promoting the income of farmers in producing areas. The notice clarifies that in addition to the requirements for the transfer of genetic resources of the population with the approval of the provincial fishery authorities, in principle, the artificial breeding of giant salamanders shall use the artificial breeding offspring seed source and establish a species archive; Offspring individuals bred from wild salamander sources should be allocated at least 5% for proliferation and release.
Red Star News reporter Wang Mingping
Edited by Peng Jiang Editor: Deng Xuguang
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