From technically cracking the worldwide problem of salmon farming in warm seas, to using large cages to verify that the technical route of salmon trout farming in the Yellow Sea is completely feasible, to commercial farming "first fishing" out of the sea, to the large-scale industrialization of salmon aquaculture, "yellow sea cold water mass high-quality fish green culture", a key project of new and old kinetic energy conversion in Shandong Province, in the long journey towards the 100 billion industry, how many "thrilling leaps" will be experienced in the middle?
A few days ago, a reporter from Qilu Evening News and Qilu One Point participated in an analysis meeting organized by the Shandong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference on the green aquaculture project in the deep sea of the Yellow Sea Cold Water Group. The common problems encountered by the government, industry, education and research projects in the process of industrialization shown in the implementation of this project are worth thinking about by all parties.
Yellow Sea salmon "first fish" on the table
This is a world-rare shallow aquifer cold water mass close to the land area of Shandong Province, with an area of 130,000 square kilometers and 500 billion cubic meters of water, equivalent to 417,000 Daming Lakes. This cold-water mass in the middle of the Yellow Sea is ideal for salmon farming.
At the beginning of 2012, the team of Professor Dong Shuanglin, former vice president of Ocean University of China, proposed for the first time the technical scheme of salmon trout culture in cold water groups in the Yellow Sea. After the valley rain this year, Qingdao citizens can already place orders online and eat salmon raised from the Yellow Sea.
"Raising a fish according to 1,000 cubic meters of water can raise 500 million fish; according to the calculation of 4 kilograms per tail, it is 2 billion kilograms, the market price is 50 yuan per kilogram, and the output value is as high as 100 billion yuan." This is an account calculated by Professor Dong Shuanglin in an interview with Qingdao Daily reporter in April last year.
"In fact, from the perspective of the first, second, and third industries leveraged by the entire industrial chain, the output value it has created is by no means more than 100 billion." Wang Xiulin, vice chairman of the Shandong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said at the remote research meeting of the Yellow Sea Cold Water Group's deep-sea aquaculture that this major project of new and old kinetic energy conversion in Shandong Province has leveraged emerging service industries such as large-scale equipment manufacturing, marine tourism, feed processing, aquatic products processing, Internet of Things technology and cold chain logistics, and has unlimited imagination space.
Navy No. 1
In July 2018, the large-scale deep-sea cage "Deep Blue No. 1", which was built by the private enterprise Rizhao Wanzefeng Fishery Co., Ltd., invested 115 million yuan, was launched; in July 2019, the upgraded version of "Deep Blue No. 2" began to be put into construction.
In December 2019, the acceptance team composed of relevant domestic experts conducted on-site acceptance of the salmon breeding project in the cold water mass area of the Yellow Sea. This acceptance test verified the feasibility of commercial-scale salmon culture in the cold waters of the Yellow Sea with large-scale deep sea cages, and the estimated output value can reach 30 million yuan. In April this year, a fishing ceremony was held, which is the "first net" of commercial fishing in the true sense of the word for salmon cultured in cold water groups in the Yellow Sea. Zhang Fei, executive deputy general manager of Shandong Deep-sea Cold Water Group Marine Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shandong Cold Water Group Company), told Qilu Evening News Qilu One Point reporter that it is expected to sell tens of thousands of kilograms in May.
From the 2012 work of Professor Dong Shuanglin's team to the "first fishing" on the public's table, how far is this project that carries shandong's dream of building a modern marine ranch from large-scale industrialization?
Zhang Fei told the Qilu Evening News Qilu One Point reporter that the "first fishing" on the table only means that the first stage of industrialization has been completed, and the processing and sales links are still being explored. This industrial chain is very long, and we are still stumbling.
Zhang Fei said that now this breeding model, incubation, vaccines, docks, processing bases scattered everywhere, the company is combing all aspects of the industrial chain, want to concentrate, the processing plant and the dock together, the comprehensive cost to the minimum; but also to build live fish transport ships, breeding boats, these items add up to about 1 billion investment. Now the biggest problem is the location of the wharf, and the company is waiting for the approval of the National Far-Reaching Sea Aquaculture Pilot Zone to promote the site selection of the wharf.
PK of deep-sea aquaculture equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars: heavy assets, high technology and high threshold
In 2019, Qingdao Ocean Investment Group, a state-owned investment platform affiliated to Qingdao Huangdao District, and Rizhao Wanfengze Fishery Co., Ltd. jointly established Shandong Deep-sea Cold Water Group Marine Development Co., Ltd., with Qingdao Haitou accounting for 51% of the shares and Wanfengze accounting for 49% of the shares, and delineated 629 hectares of sea area use rights in the yellow sea offshore for the cultivation of large-scale salmon fry. This is the first time that Qingdao Haitou has controlled and operated a company as a state-owned asset. What kind of industrial track does Qingdao Haitou enter? Let's take a look at the ring of deep-sea aquaculture equipment-
In June 2017, Marine Fishery 1, the world's largest deep-sea aquaculture farm manufactured by Wu shipbuilding heavy industry, was delivered to SalMar, the No. 3 giant of Norwegian salmon farming. This behemoth is 110 meters in diameter, 20 stories high, the underwater part is 45 meters, weighs 7693 tons, the cost of a single set is 420 million yuan, and it can raise 1.5 million fish in one breeding season, produce 8000 tons of salmon, and produce more than 100 million US dollars.
This intelligent cage is equipped with more than 200 kinds of sensors, the number of more than 20,000, underwater water monitoring equipment more than 100, gathering the world's most advanced salmon intelligent breeding, automation support, high-end deep-sea operation management system. The entire cage is fixed by 8 cables connected to the seabed, which can withstand 12 strong winds and has a service life of 25 years. Xinhua News Agency reported on "Ocean Fishery No. 1" that "Ocean Fishery No. 1" is of epoch-making significance even in Norway, and this large-scale high-end intelligent breeding equipment marks the upgrading of the marine aquaculture model, and the capacity of this volume of equipment in the Norwegian market alone exceeds 100 sets. From the perspective of the domestic market, only considering the resources of the South China Sea, a fishery equipment market of 360 billion yuan can be formed.
Therefore, in June 2018, the "Deep Blue No. 1" invested by Wan Zefeng for 115 million yuan was thrown into the waters of the Yellow Sea Cold Water Group, and CCTV did not hesitate to call it the "Heavy Instrument of the Nation" in the report - it is the second largest far-reaching sea cage in the world with a circumference of 180 meters, equivalent to 40 standard swimming pools, designed to raise 300,000 fish per year, and the annual output value is expected to be 120-150 million yuan.
In July 2019, the "Deep Blue No. 2" with a cost of more than 100 million yuan has begun to be designed and constructed. The "Deep Blue No. 2" culture volume is 3 times that of No. 1, which can cultivate nearly one million salmon.
On the list of "heavy weapons of the country", there are also large equipment such as "Strait No. 1", "Long Whale No. 1", "Penghu No. 1", "Fu Bao No. 1", and high-value seafood such as abalone, yellow croaker and salmon are farmed. These marine equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars has set up a high-tech threshold for heavy assets for deep-sea aquaculture trees, and its manufacturers are Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry, Wu shipbuilding heavy industry, CIMC Raffles City and other equipment industry leaders. In addition to design and manufacturing, these large-scale marine equipment also integrates the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and other information, intelligent technology breeding system, so that the management of these large-scale far-reaching sea fisheries with an output value of hundreds of millions of dollars does not require many people.
This also means that the equipment competition behind the global far-reaching marine aquaculture is also a competition that has accumulated the industry's deep information and intelligent technology research and development capabilities. The yellow sea cold water mass sea collected fish in May, and the suction pump equipment for fishing from the cage still needs to be imported from the United States. At present, the internationally accepted operation method is to rely on a huge suction pump to suck the live fish in the cage into the seawater barn of the transport ship, transport it to the dock, and then use the suction pump to pump the live fish directly to the nearby processing workshop.
This is the operation site of a large salmon farming enterprise in Norway, where live fish transport ships are directly connected to the processing plant on the dock, and live fish in the cabin are directly sent to the processing plant through the suction pump.
Together with this project, it faced competition with modern aquaculture in Norway
Large-scale marine equipment is only one link in the industrial chain of salmon marine aquaculture. Professor Dong Shuanglin said at the remote research meeting of the Yellow Sea Cold Water Group Salmon Breeding Project held by the Shandong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference recently that the project needs to conduct continuous research on the water temperature change of the Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass; it needs the support of information-based intelligent technologies such as the Internet of Things; the breeding is currently imported from the United States, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and other countries, and this link is also in the hands of foreign companies; vaccine research and development is facing the problem of resource integration; and other platform support is needed in the research and development of breeding technology.
Why is Norwegian salmon farming the strongest in the world? Dong Shuanglin said that Norway has studied a fish for almost all of the country for decades - they have studied Atlantic salmon thoroughly!
After a series of acquisitions, norway's top salmon farming giants are all operating in the whole industrial chain integrating breeding, feed, freshwater aquaculture, live fish transportation, processing, sales and export, and have strong resource integration capabilities. In Norway's top salmon farming companies, fresh water is recycled; a new sonar system intelligently monitors the salmon feeding process to effectively reduce feed waste; a video system monitors the breeding cage, replaces manual analysis with computer vision technology, and remotely determines the amount of feeding; and introduces a traceability system to closely track salmon health and fishing status. Norway has been working in this field for many years and has set a high industry threshold.
The video surveillance system tracks salmon in large deep-sea cages for automatic feeding.
As far as salmon eggs are concerned, Norway has several large salmon hatcheries, which are in a monopoly position in the market, and China's import of fish eggs from Norway is smooth from time to time. The United States is also in hot pursuit, and its genetically modified salmon has been approved for marketing.
Norway has the highest production of salmon farming in the world, reaching around 1.2 million tonnes in 2019. In July 2017, China lifted import restrictions on Norwegian salmon. According to information from the Norwegian Seafood Board, Norwegian salmon exports to China have doubled since then: 4,000 tonnes in 2017, 12,057 tonnes in 2018 and 23,525 tonnes in 2019.
Currently, 90% of Norwegian salmon is consumed outside of China. China has 300 million middle class, the annual demand for salmon in the Chinese market can reach more than 250,000 tons, and it is mainly imported at present, and the huge market potential is far from being stimulated. Now, Norway and Chile are working China, the world's largest consumer.
In August last year, SalMar signed a strategic cooperation agreement with RT-Mart, and in November, the Norwegian Seafood Bureau promoted products at the Hema Fresh Store to enter the new retail channel in China. In terms of logistics, the first direct freight route from Oslo to Tianjin was officially opened in January last year, and it only takes 11 hours to transport seafood from Norway to China.
Starting from January 6, 2020, advertisements for Norwegian salmon began to appear in major subway stations in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The Norwegian Seafood Agency said it would focus on China's consumer market in 2020.
This means that China's salmon culture industry has faced competition with a mature modern deep-sea aquaculture industry like Norway from the beginning. Even in a global trading system, due to Norway's monopoly position in breeding germplasm, China's marine salmon farming industry will inevitably be "stuck in the neck". Dong Shuanglin revealed that in addition to independently carrying out salmon seed production work, he is also negotiating cooperation with relevant Norwegian fish egg companies to solve this bottleneck problem.
Professor Dong Shuanglin said that the advantages of domestic salmon farming are: closest to the consumer market, logistics costs are low; the winter water temperature in the sea where Deep Blue No. 1 is located is not less than 9 degrees Celsius, and it can grow to more than 5 kg in two years, while it takes two and a half years to farm salmon in Norway, and the growth cycle is longer; in addition, the cold water mass of the Yellow Sea is far from the coast, the water quality is good, and there are few fish diseases; coupled with our low labor costs, our comparative advantages are also prominent.
What should the government do? What should the market do?
The Yellow Sea cold water mass salmon farming project, which has initially explored a way, is now entering the second stage of industrialization development. What should the government do at this critical stage? What should the market do?
At present, all parties are eagerly awaiting the approval of the national far-reaching sea aquaculture pilot zone. Deep-sea aquaculture involves factors such as national defense and shipping, and to stay away from shipping routes and operate in non-military areas, how to protect the rights and interests of investors is the primary issue. You know, it costs tens of millions to drag a super cage away from the deep sea. At present, the maximum period of sea area use rights is 15 years, and it is limited to the territorial sea area within 12 nautical miles, which also affects the enthusiasm of enterprises to invest in far-reaching sea pastures. In the future, whether various innovation policies can be tried first in the pilot zone and use policy dividends to break through the bottleneck of the current development of the deep sea.
Dong Shuanglin revealed that the national far-reaching sea aquaculture pilot zone now declared is mainly in the cold water mass waters of the South Yellow Sea, which is 130 nautical miles (about 250 kilometers) from the land, including the core area of the sea and the supporting research and development, seed, processing and equipment manufacturing bases on land. Qingdao takes the cold-water fish culture of the Yellow Sea cold water mass as the core, focuses on the development of deep-sea aquaculture, seedlings, vaccines, feed, high-end equipment manufacturing, marine food, marine Internet of Things, cold chain logistics, catering services, marine tourism and other industries around the cold-water fish farming industry chain.
This pilot zone is planned to build 10 large-scale deep-sea intelligent aquaculture cages by 2025 or a little longer, breed 10 million high-value cold-water fish, and produce an output value of 2 billion yuan, forming a relatively complete far-reaching marine aquaculture-processing-sales-service industrial chain, driving the formation of an industrial cluster of 10 billion yuan.
From the details revealed so far, it can be seen that this pilot zone is to create a green and intelligent breeding super platform in China's far-reaching sea, which is equivalent to engaging in a large-scale offshore "new infrastructure" in the Yellow Sea. Once this pilot zone is landed, Shandong's modern marine fishery will undoubtedly create a new pattern, which is a major opportunity for the development of modern fishery in Shandong. Now, how to accelerate the construction of public facilities at the government level to promote this maritime "new infrastructure", such as ocean-going data transmission systems, energy supply, logistics replenishment, land-based security facilities, etc., is a key point.
The salmon deep sea ecological pasture is built in China's exclusive economic zone of 130 nautical miles, and at present, China has no relevant laws and regulations on aquaculture activities in the exclusive economic zone. At the remote research meeting of the salmon breeding project of the Yellow Sea Cold Water Group, Zhang Fashui, member of the Shandong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of Shandong Legal Law Firm, called for the construction of the pilot zone as an opportunity to introduce the regulations on the development and protection of the far-reaching sea in the exclusive marine economic zone of Shandong Province as soon as possible.
"Shandong's promulgation of the Regulations on the Protection of The Development of the Profound Sea is the largest business environment construction." Wang Xiulin, vice chairman of the Shandong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said at the research meeting that this project is a key step in the transformation and upgrading of marine aquaculture in Shandong, and it is necessary to take the lead in the construction of laws and regulations in the exclusive economic zone, and complete the infrastructure used in the sea area and develop and utilize it.
Wang Xiulin, vice chairman of the Shandong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, stressed at the research meeting that another major innovation required for this project is the innovation of financing methods. Judging from the current progress of the project, the problem of funding has become a major bottleneck in the project. Carefully analyze, behind the funding problems of this project, the government subsidy method needs to be innovated, the enterprise financing method needs to be innovated, and the path planning of industrial development needs to be open and innovative.
In the "infancy" of industrial growth, it is very critical for the government to "help one hand", so how can the government help the most effective? Up to now, the yellow sea cold water mass green large-scale aquaculture project has received 94.5 million yuan of marine fishery support funds at all levels, but these support funds add up to only equivalent to building a "deep blue No. 1", and the amount of funds required for this industry has long exceeded the original expectations.
The relevant personnel of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Shandong Province revealed at the research meeting that the comprehensive pilot project of modern marine ranch construction has implemented some special funds, but there is still a large gap from the total investment of about 5.3 billion yuan approved by the state. This year, in accordance with the relevant deployment of the province, the direct subsidy fund for the construction of marine ranches will be adjusted to equity investment.
In the situation report, Shandong Cold Water Group Company suggested that the investment funds set up by local finance should be guided to participate in the development of far-reaching aquaculture; support far-reaching aquaculture enterprises to use modern financial means to raise funds, and encourage venture capital to enter the field of far-reaching aquaculture.
So, how to attract social capital and industrial capital into the Yellow Sea Cold Water Group Project to accelerate the industrialization process of this government-industry-university-research project?
Rizhao private enterprise Wan Zefeng has already smashed into the real money and silver 300 million
Dong Shuanglin said that the risk of deep-sea aquaculture is relatively large, and there are many uncertainties. The "Deep Blue No. 1" standard is designed to resist a typhoon once in 50 years. But once a typhoon above level 14 blows up, how can insurance companies cover the bottom? At present, the fishery industry in Shandong Province has not been included in the scope of policy insurance, and commercial insurance has just started, and it has not formed a large-scale coverage of the aquaculture industry.
This high-risk characteristic of heavy assets makes the industry dare not rush to intervene before it has embarked on a mature path.
In 2012, after Dong Shuanglin's team proposed the Technical Scheme for Salmon Trout Farming in cold water groups in the Yellow Sea, the industry-university-research project of Ocean University of China contacted many rounds of investors.
Weihai Chengshan is very close to the Cold Water Mass of the Yellow Sea, only about 10 nautical miles. In 2012, when Professor Dong Shuanglin contacted Weihai, he already had a technical solution in his hands. At that time, Weihai sea cucumber farming was very mature and hot, equivalent to lying down to earn money, and private capital for this kind of project was very cautious.
Later, Dalian Zhangzidao was very interested in this project, and in 2014, the two sides signed an agreement, but they did not expect that there was a scallop incident later, and the cooperation was stranded.
At the end of 2014, Wan Zefeng, the first Rizhao private enterprise that dared to smash real money and silver into this project, appeared. WanZefeng was formerly built a wharf and wanted to transform into aquaculture. The project began to plan to invest 50 million to 70 million yuan, using high-density polyethylene deep-sea cage culture, using small steps and fast running methods, increasing the amount of aquaculture every year. Unexpectedly, after on-the-spot breeding, it was found that the cage could not withstand typhoons in the deep sea.
In July 2017, Wan Zefeng invested another 63 million yuan to build China's first aquaculture vessel, which has a total length of 86 meters and a fish tank of 2200 cubic meters, which can extract low-temperature marine aquaculture salmon 40 meters below the sea surface. In the same year, the breeding vessel combined with high-density polyethylene deep-sea cage completed the verification of the technical route of salmon culture in cold water groups in the Yellow Sea.
In the face of typhoons, the cultivation of salmon in deep-sea cages with high-density polyethylene is always worrying. At that time, Wu Shipbuilding Heavy Industry was making "Ocean Ranch No. 1" for Norway. Li Hong, chairman of Wan Zefeng, went to the scene to take a look and said to Dong Shuanglin, we also want to build a cage that can make people sleep. The 115 million investment "Deep Blue No. 1" is released.
Wan Zefeng also invested 95 million yuan to build salmon seed breeding and domestication bases in Rizhao and Yishui. Before and after, this Rizhao private enterprise has invested 300 million yuan in the Yellow Sea cold water group project. During this period, wanzefeng, as a private enterprise, has been encountering financing problems, relying only on self-financing and limited financial support funds, which is also a typical problem encountered by private enterprises investing in Shandong Marine Ranch.
The Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Shandong Province said in its report on the transformation and upgrading of marine fisheries in Shandong Province that the cultivation and promotion of new formats such as deep-sea aquaculture require years of continuous research, and multi-party cooperation is required, and it is difficult for enterprises and scientific research units to do it alone.
Therefore, when the "Deep Blue No. 2" is invested and built, Wan Zefeng introduces Qingdao Haitou, and the establishment of a joint venture between the two sides is also an inevitable move.
In June 2019, Liu Yonghao, chairman of New Hope Group Co., Ltd., became interested in the project when he attended the zhenghe island changemakers' annual meeting in Qingdao, but after doing due diligence, he thought the time was not yet ripe.
What was Liu Yonghao worried about?
The most thrilling leap: how can industrial capital intervene?
The establishment of the far-reaching sea green breeding platform is a systematic project, and the industrial chain of salmon farming in the cold water group in the Yellow Sea is longer and more complex. Investors' eyes are sharp —
Deep-sea aquaculture is a systematic project, seed breeding, feed, vaccines and other research and development need scientific and technological support, large-scale marine equipment varies from place to place (breeding) species, information, intelligence, Internet of Things technology landing also varies from species to species, the research and development of these equipment and technologies also need a strong multidisciplinary team support. In addition, the assessment of aquaculture capacity in specific sea areas, fishing, processing, cold chain logistics, sales links and other issues require multidisciplinary and multi-industry close cooperation.
Since the beginning of the "Maritime Granary" project in Shandong in 2015, the project has been strongly supported by Shandong Province, the Ministry of Agriculture, the State Oceanic Administration and other departments, and now it has been supported by the Blue Granary Science and Technology Innovation Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology. Dong Shuanglin revealed that the scientific research units involved in the project have developed from the initial 4 to more than 10 in 5 provinces and cities now.
To introduce the "accelerator" of capital, Shandong Cold Water Tuan Company is sorting out and optimizing from every link of the industrial chain, and at the critical moment when the commercial harvest of the first stage of the project is about to be completed, the technical path and industrial model of the project are clearly presented to investors. It is necessary to open up the entire industrial chain in order to attract capital to enter and quickly start the second stage of development. Zhang Fei stressed that this project must be opened to attract high-quality industrial capital to enter. What financing methods are adopted, and what order of magnitude partners and resources are introduced, are closely related to the strategic positioning of this project.
China's salmon consumption market has been awakened, and the world's largest consumer country has attracted the world's top fisheries companies to compete for deer. How to quickly establish a market-oriented and efficiently configured industrial ecology, benchmark the world's most advanced breeding technology, form an open platform, gather and integrate the strongest resources in each link of the industrial chain, and leverage this project to enter the rapid development channel? This maritime "new infrastructure" project, which carries the dream of cultivating a hundred billion-level industry, must finally come to this step.
Qingdao itself has advantages in the marine economy, ocean university of China is a domestic seawater salmon breeding technology research highland, from breeding, vaccines, feed, diseases, freshwater fry breeding, seawater finished fish farming, Professor Dong Shuanglin's team has been researching these technologies for many years; Qingdao holds an international fisheries expo every year, building an international industry exchange platform; Qingdao can also leverage the policy dividends of the free trade zone, once the national far-reaching sea aquaculture pilot zone lands, relying on the top scarce resources of the Yellow Sea cold water group, Qingdao will be built into a cluster of salmon deep-sea aquaculture industry chain clusters, gather high-end resources from all parties at home and abroad, and face global competition. "So who's going to do this?" We are facing global competition, we need to cultivate modern enterprise groups, cultivate chain main enterprises, and need to increase the construction of industrial ecology. Wang Xiulin, vice chairman of the Shandong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said at the research meeting.
Qilu Evening News Qilu one-point reporter Cai Yudan
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