In 2024, it will be more difficult for the entire aquaculture industry, the market consumption has been sluggish for a long time, and the aquatic products stored in the pond last year have been consumed one after another this year, and the pressure on farmers is very high. Although the price of some varieties has increased recently, the fundamental reason is the shortage of stock, once the supply increases in autumn, many varieties with a high probability of falling in price.
The pressure on the breeding end is also constantly transmitted, and the seedlings, feed, animal protection and other links closely related to breeding have also felt the pressure, many enterprises have encountered some difficulties in their operations, some enterprises have even closed their doors, and the sense of crisis in the industry is getting heavier and heavier.
As the fastest-growing enterprise in the past decade, how did Jiangsu Haorun Biological Industry Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Haorun) perform in the first half of the year? Recently, Aquaculture Network interviewed Liu Aimin, the helmsman of Haorun, to have in-depth exchanges on some hot topics.
Liu Aimin, chairman of Jiangsu Haorun Biological Industry Group Co., Ltd
Aquaculture Network: Mr. Liu, can you introduce the group's situation in the first half of the year in the animal protection feed seedlings and other sectors?
Liu Aimin: On the whole, all sectors of Haorun have completed the set goals in the first half of this year.
"Haorun No. 1" big-eyed larvae completed the delivery of last year's advance payment, and more than 80,000 catties of seedlings emerged, which is basically the same as in 2023. We originally planned to add more than 10,000 catties of bigeye larvae to the market on this basis, but this year due to weather conditions, the production of bigeye larvae declined, and this expected goal was not achieved;
The feed sector is basically in accordance with the established rhythm, the overall growth rate in the first half of the year exceeded 40%, and in the case of ensuring the benign sales of feed, we cut the category of low-end materials, only retained the high-end feed product line, and strive to complete the goal of "growth of 60%" in the second half of the year;
The growth rate of the animal protection sector declined slightly compared with last year, and the established target of "not less than 30% growth" was not completed. As of June, the first half of this year increased by about 4% over the same period last year.
Aquaculture Network: This year, many companies have launched more professional functional animal protection products, or functional feed, will this be a big trend in the next few years?
Liu Aimin: On the demand side, as people's attention to food safety and animal health continues to increase, the demand for high-quality animal products is also increasing. Functional animal protection products and functional feeds can help animals better prevent diseases, improve production performance and immunity, so as to meet consumer demand for high-quality animal products.
From a technical point of view, with the continuous development of biotechnology, genetic engineering and nutrition, more and more new technologies and methods are applied to the research and development and production of animal health products. These new technologies and methods can help enterprises develop more professional, efficient and safe functional animal protection products and functional feeds.
At the same time, the government's supervision of the animal protection industry is also constantly strengthening, and the requirements for product quality and safety are getting higher and higher. This will prompt enterprises to continuously improve the quality and safety of products, and promote the development of functional animal protection products and functional feed, which is the reason why enterprises seek "inward". Overall, functional animal protection products and functional feeds are an important trend in the development of the animal health products industry in the next few years.
In the final analysis, high-quality feed or animal protection products in the breeding process is only one of them, breeding is inseparable from the management of any link, Haorun has more than 500 aquatic technical service centers in the country, each store has a professional level of detection and diagnosis, every technician is a professional fishery doctor, in the breeding process for farmers to provide professional technical guidance, targeted solutions, reasonable feed feeding plan, water quality management program, etc., to prevent the occurrence of disease, Reduce the risk of breeding and improve the efficiency of breeding.
Aquaculture network: this year's shrimp is relatively bad, some places in Jiangsu and Shandong even appear in the extreme phenomenon of small sheds, Guangdong and Guangxi have a lot less sheds, past the peak of the shed shrimp, is there any hope to rise?
Liu Aimin: Due to weak consumption, the consumption of many aquatic products has been affected, and shrimp is no exception. The scale of breeding has been blindly expanded, but the market demand has not increased synchronously, resulting in oversupply. However, due to the advantages of high yield, stability, controllability and replicability, the small shed shrimp still has high development potential in the future, and how to make the small shed shrimp achieve benign and sustainable development is what we need to think about.
Farmers in the selection of shrimp species and breeding, should pay attention to the specifications and quality, blindly pursue the density and yield of high input and high-risk mode is not advisable, need to pay more attention to the seedling survival rate and the adjustment of the rhythm of breeding, reduce the cost of breeding, improve market competitiveness.
We provide animal protection, feed and technical guidance services for farmers to help farmers monitor diseases in advance, avoid breeding risks for farmers, and ultimately improve breeding efficiency.
Aquaculture Network: This year, some people who raise shrimp and fish have switched to raising Roche shrimp, this variety seems to be very popular, but the Roche shrimp market is not as good as last year, what do you think of this variety?
Liu Aimin: Although the overall market demand for giant river prawn continues to grow, the market has indeed declined compared with last year. This may be related to the increase in market supply, changes in consumer purchasing power, and increased competition in the market. Price fluctuations are a normal phenomenon in the market economy, and for farmers, it is necessary to pay close attention to market dynamics and reasonably adjust the scale of breeding and sales strategies.
The rapid expansion of any farmed species will bring chaos, whether it is vannamei shrimp or Roche shrimp, only high quality can be profitable.
Aquaculture network: this year, many crab ponds have a relatively high density of seedlings, and even Xinghua farmers have begun to grasp the output of encryption, coupled with the overall crab breeding so far is relatively smooth, if the supply of crabs increases significantly in autumn, will it have a great impact on crab prices?
Liu Aimin: In Jiangsu, river crab farming is divided into three major models, southern Jiangsu is a high-density, large-scale, high-investment model, and the consumption cycle is mainly based on New Year's Day and Spring Festival. Although northern Jiangsu is also high-density, the finished crabs are mainly small and medium-sized in size, which is in line with the consumption habits of most consumers in the current economic environment. The breeding density of the Suzhou-China model is low and the specifications are large, but because of the low density and low input, and the time to sell crabs is concentrated in the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, during which the crabs have large specifications and high selling prices, and the ability to resist risks is actually the highest among the three models.
According to the price data of previous years, the price of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day is the best time of the year, and it is relatively stable.
I think the price of river crab, like many other aquatic products, should be about the same as last year in the second half of this year.
Aquaculture network: The group has achieved a closed loop in building the whole industry chain of river crabs, will there be other actions in the future in the river crab industry chain?
Liu Aimin: In the future, we will continue to maintain the status of the whole river crab industry chain, steadily improve the existing sectors of the river crab industry chain, and extend the river crab food processing sector.
Aquaculture network: Freshwater large yellow croaker is a key project of the group, what is the current progress? How will it be promoted on a large scale in the next three to five years?
Liu Aimin: After the early introduction and preservation of seeds, Haorun Group has built the world's only core population parent bank. In the next 3-5 years, it is planned to promote the industrial park model of "freshwater large yellow croaker whole industry chain" to the whole country; On the other hand, accelerate the expansion of freshwater large yellow croaker in the food processing sector.
Freshwater large yellow croaker
Aquaculture network: this year, many varieties of the market is not ideal, farmers are becoming more and more confused, want to change to other varieties, it is difficult to have too good choices, this is not to show that most of the breeding species have been surplus? How can farmers regain confidence?
Liu Aimin: China is the world's largest producer and consumer of aquatic products, with the improvement of living standards, consumer demand for aquatic products is also continuing to grow, the future aquatic products consumption market still has huge growth potential.
Although it cannot be directly concluded that all farmed species are in surplus, it is true that some species are in excess of demand. In the case of a downturn, farmers should pay more attention to fine management, rationally treat market changes, and actively respond to various challenges in the breeding process. At the same time, do not blindly expand or expand the breeding density to reduce the overall cost.
In the process of breeding, farmers can choose high-quality animal protection products and feed, improve breeding efficiency, reduce breeding costs, and also help to improve the quality of breeding varieties, to ensure the smooth breeding process and maximize the breeding benefits.