Qinghai is famous for its magnificent scenery among tourists. What few people know is that the domestic salmon (aka "domestic rainbow trout") industry is booming here.
The Beijing News reporter recently visited the Qinghai domestic salmon breeding base and learned that due to the impact of the epidemic, domestic salmon sales did not pick up until August, and some enterprises did not sell as much as 30% in previous years, and new ways such as e-commerce and processed products helped the effect to be small. While poverty alleviation docking helps to open up sales channels, how domestic salmon will be positioned in the market in the future has become the next topic of thinking in the industry.
Sales are struggling
In Tibetan, "dragon" is a valley, "sheep" is a cliff, located in Qinghai City, Longyangxia Reservoir is more than 2600 meters above sea level, the average water depth of 64 meters, the average annual water temperature of 12 °C, the unique superior environment makes here become a domestic salmon breeding paradise.
Zheng Weizhong, a doctor engaged in marine life and aquatic research in China, told the Beijing News that in China, salmon is a collective name for many types of salmon and trout such as Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout. Based on the different harsh water conditions required for salmon trout growth, most of the salmon currently circulating in China's market comes from imported salmon, and domestic salmon is mainly rainbow trout.
Ying Miyan, chairman of Qinghai Minze Longyangxia Ecological Aquaculture Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Minze Company"), told the Beijing News reporter that in the 570,000-mu reservoir of Longyangxia in Qinghai, the company's breeding area is 253 mu, the scale of environmental protection approval is 20,000 tons, and the actual commodity and breeding scale is about 15,000 tons, accounting for about 50% of the total domestic salmon in China.
Operators are cutting their cheeks and bleeding domestic salmon.
In the reservoir breeding base, the Beijing News reporter saw that a series of domestic salmon through the pipeline suction to the water work room, after cutting their gills and bleeding, they were poured into the half-human-high yellow box by the conveyor belt, constantly covered by ice and cold water, less than 2 minutes, a box of about 300 kilograms of domestic salmon completed the sealing of the box. After the fine processing in the factory, these domestic salmon will be delivered to the customer within 48 hours. In the context of the epidemic, strict control of food safety is the top priority of many fresh food enterprises. At Minze, its own laboratory conducts nucleic acid testing on each batch of domestic salmon. The reporter noted that the intelligent equipment monitors the growth of salmon in real time, and a small screen of more than 10 inches can switch the dynamics of 20 cages. Yang Xu, deputy general manager of Minze Company, said, "Salmon has grown well this year, and production is expected to increase by another 20%. ”
Real-time monitoring of the domestic salmon growth environment and dynamic screen.
However, in contrast to the rise in production, domestic sales have fallen sharply. Minze is the only domestic salmon enterprise approved to export, with export qualifications from Russia, the European Union, Japan and other countries, accounting for more than 70% of exports from June to August this year. Compared with the relatively stable export business, domestic sales recovered to less than 30% of the same period in previous years.
Yang Xu introduced that the boycott of the terminal consumer market during the epidemic has triggered a cliff-like decline in salmon sales, and a large number of orders were cancelled at the most serious time, and sales directly returned to zero. The impact of the epidemic on the terminal catering and wholesale markets only gradually eased in August this year, and sales showed a warming momentum, but the growth was slow, and the market remained cautious and wait-and-see. At the same time, there are different degrees of slow sales in farms across the country, and everyone is in a hurry to ship, which has triggered low-price competition in the market to a certain extent.
Small and micro enterprises are even more difficult. Mr. Zhao, who has more than 10 acres of domestic salmon farms in Zibo, Shandong Province, told the Beijing News that the annual output of his farm is about 300,000 to 400,000 jin, and the main sales channels are wholesale markets and hotels. However, since the outbreak of the epidemic at the beginning of the year, there have been no wholesalers' orders before August this year. "It's all hard to eat the old book." Although a truckload of goods was taken last month, the price was 30% lower than in the same period of previous years. For the follow-up sales forecast, Mr. Zhao said, "If the situation improves in the next 4 months, it is the best result that this year's performance can be flat." "For some smaller family farmers, it is more difficult to sell, and it can only be said that the selling point is calculated."
It is intended to be solved through poverty alleviation docking
How to restore the sales of domestic salmon in the past has become one of the most difficult problems at present. In Yang Xu's view, the current bottleneck in the development of the domestic salmon industry has three aspects, first of all, the breeding end of the enterprise is uneven, production standardization and product standardization need to be improved; secondly, the consumer market end of the domestic salmon awareness is insufficient; and finally, the breedable areas are remote areas, and it is difficult to cultivate and stabilize professionals.
In fact, the recovery of the domestic salmon industry is of great significance to local development. Ma Rui, deputy secretary-general of the Qinghai Provincial Government, pointed out that in recent years, the salmon industry has become a characteristic industry in Qinghai, and has driven the masses to increase their income and get rid of poverty. According to the official website of the People's Government of Gonghe County, Qinghai Province, the salmon industry in Qinghai Province has become the largest salmon trout cage breeding base in the country and one of the top ten agricultural key industries in Qinghai Province.
Minze Chairman Ying Miyan introduced to the Beijing News reporter that when he came to Qinghai more than ten years ago, the local animal husbandry was the main one and relied on the sky to eat. Through the development of the domestic salmon industry, more than 95% of the 285 employees of Minze Company are villagers in Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and surrounding areas in Qinghai Province, and many of them have completed the transformation from farmers to modern residents to small bosses. With the construction of the new industrial park, it is expected to provide 400 more jobs. Since 2009, Minze Longyang Gorge has continued to increase and stock the Longyang Gorge reservoir area, and the natural breed of fish fry has accumulated 2.16 billion grains (tails), which can increase the income of fishermen along the Longyang Gorge by about 25 million yuan per year.
In order to further help the sales of aquatic products in poor areas and achieve poverty alleviation in the fishery industry, in September this year, under the guidance of the Fishery and Fishery Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the China Aquatic Products Circulation and Processing Association organized domestic chain retail enterprises, large supermarkets, catering enterprises, fresh product supply chain enterprises, international procurement enterprises, e-commerce, etc., to hold Qinghai salmon production and marketing docking activities in Minze Company. Minze Company said that after this activity, before the end of September, it has reached preliminary cooperation intentions with more than 5 enterprises.
Market positioning is key
After the production and marketing matchmaking meeting, Guangzhou Haiqing Food Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Haiqing Food"), a subsidiary of Guangzhou Huangsha Aquatic Products Trading Market, made further contact with Minze Company. On September 27, Tan Huiying, deputy general manager of Haiqing Food, told the Beijing News that in Guangzhou and other places, imported salmon in salmon has been circulating in the wholesale market for a long time, but trout has not been fully penetrated. Domestic salmon want to enter the South China market, with the help of the "salmon" collective name does not necessarily occupy an advantage, perhaps directly take the "rainbow trout" this subdivision category name out, more conducive to the establishment of a new brand image.
The Beijing News reporter searched for the keyword "salmon" on e-commerce platforms such as Tmall and Jingdong and found that the top 10 products sold were imported salmon. Among them, on the Tmall page, 80 entries per page are used as units, and the figure of domestic salmon does not appear until page 3. However, if you search for the keyword "rainbow trout", you can directly find domestic salmon products.
Tan Huiying said that rainbow trout may taste better than salmon in terms of cooked food, which should be accepted by consumers in the South China market and has great potential in the domestic sales market, but the follow-up cooperation situation still needs to be judged according to the final market positioning, price and output.
In the view of Yang Xu, deputy general manager of Minze, if only the more professional category name of "rainbow trout" is highlighted, it is a choice that accompanies the advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that it is more professional and can be distinguished from similar products; the disadvantage is that if you abandon the umbrella name of salmon, it is equivalent to re-branding in the terminal consumer market, and it is likely to encounter difficulties such as bad market competition.
For adjusting the name, Zheng Weizhong told the Beijing News reporter that the industry has also suggested that the terminal market should indicate subdivided species such as salmon and trout when selling salmon. But as far as consumers are concerned, everyone's cognition of the collective term "salmon" has been deeply rooted, and if a new brand is brought out, consumers' acceptance of the new name will take a certain amount of time to slowly convert.
Some consumers do not know that salmon has a classification
In fact, as early as 2018, the "Raw Salmon" group standard formulated by the China Aquatic Products Circulation and Processing Association and a number of enterprises pointed out that salmon is a general term for salmonids, including Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, silver salmon, king salmon, red salmon, autumn salmon, white salmon and so on. It is clearly required that the product label indicate the origin and species name of the raw fish, so that consumers can clearly understand where the raw fish comes from and know the trade name and species name of the product.
On October 13, a reporter from the Beijing News visited five fresh supermarkets in Beijing's Dongcheng District and Daxing District as a consumer, and 1 supermarket in Dongcheng District said that since the xinfadi epidemic in the middle of the year, the supermarket has not yet listed salmon products. Most of the salmon sold by the remaining four supermarkets come from imports, but the price tags made by supermarkets do not indicate the specific category, and the place of origin is only indicated as the domestic processing location. In terms of product packaging, 1 of the 4 supermarkets has its own divided salmon without printing the specific category and place of origin on the packaging sticker. Combined with the beijing news reporter's on-site visit and consumer pictures, the salmon products packaged by food companies will basically indicate "salmon (Atlantic salmon)" and "salmon (rainbow trout)" in the ingredient list.
Do consumers understand the classification of salmon? The Beijing News reporter randomly interviewed more than 10 consumers, most of whom said that they did not know that salmon also had a classification, and paid more attention to the formality of the purchase channel than the type. Ms. Wu, a consumer, said that although she knows that salmon is divided into imported salmon, domestic trout, etc., she is more concerned about freshness when purchasing, and it is of little significance to classify them. Ms. Xiao, a consumer, believes that if the prices of salmon and trout are different, it is more conducive to the determination of salmon classification in combination with the choices required.
Some packaged salmon are subdivided in the ingredient list.
Large-scale aquaculture still needs to be explored
The development of domestic salmon in the catering end is also of concern. For the Japanese food industry will consider using domestic salmon to replace imported salmon, a domestic chain of Japanese food store procurement head Mr. Gao told the Beijing News reporter that compared with imported products, domestic chilled transport distance is shorter, in freshness and price are more advantageous, the two tastes have their own characteristics, salmon is more smooth and tender, trout is more compact, there is still a difference in taste, plus consumers have become accustomed to the flavor, can not be completely replaced. Whether domestic salmon can be promoted as a new dish needs to be tried and discussed. "We have contacted each other to send some products to study. However, which cooking method is suitable for domestic salmon, whether it can be pushed to the Japanese table, etc., or wait for the internal test before deciding. ”
Is it possible for processed products to open up sales channels for domestic salmon? The Beijing News reporter noted that when sales encountered obstacles, some domestic salmon companies have begun to try to enter the C-end market through deep-processed products such as fish pine and smoke. According to the feedback of Minze Company, although affected by the epidemic, household consumption has increased, and retail and e-commerce have become a new direction of sales, but due to the fact that products need to be transported throughout the cold chain, and the proportion of raw fish is high, the supplementary role of retail and e-commerce on sales is not obvious.
The Beijing News reporter noted that as of October 12, on the Tmall platform, the most popular product of the Longyangxia flagship store is still the vacuum lock fresh frozen set, followed by salmon pine and smoked salmon, with total sales of 592 singles, 406 singles and 149 singles in turn.
Zheng Weizhong said that the development of domestic salmon in the future "the key needs to be aimed at market positioning." "For salmon trout, the main domestic consumption is sushi and other raw foods, so the development of processed products needs time to accept." In the field of deep processing, domestic salmon will mostly be supplied to hotels or Western food markets in the form of cold smoke and so on. Compared with Western food and Japanese food, if the cooked food after domestic salmon processing can be better integrated into Chinese food, future sales may also achieve spurt growth.
He said that at present, based on the harsh water conditions required for the growth of domestic salmon, the total annual output of domestic salmon in China is only more than 30,000 tons, which is not huge compared with other fish. However, China has begun to tap the potential of production capacity, experimenting with salmon trout culture in deep-sea cold water groups such as the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea, and it will take a while to explore large-scale aquaculture. If the research goes well, in about 3-5 years, domestic salmon production or will usher in a leap forward growth, and The production capacity of Chinese rainbow trout in China may double.
Beijing News reporter Wang Sijiong photography Wang Sijiong
Edited by Zhu Fenglan Proofreader Li Ming
Source: Beijing News