National eel: How to go from zero to number one in the world?
Eel, also known as eel, has ranked first in China's export of foreign exchange-creating single aquatic products for many consecutive years, with an annual export value of more than 1 billion US dollars. China's eel industry began in the 1970s. After more than 40 years of development, it has become the largest country in eel farming and export. In 2022, the national eel farming output was 281,700 tons, the processing volume was 139,500 tons, the export volume was 64,000 tons, the number of eel-related employees exceeded 300,000, and the annual output value of the whole industrial chain exceeded 30 billion yuan.
Workers work on the processing line of roasted eels. Photo by Yang Hui, reporter of China Agricultural Daily · China Agricultural Network
After May, this year's eel fry fishing season officially ended, and the spring that eel farmers have been waiting for has not come. The harvest of eel seedlings failed. Data shows that in 2023, the amount of Japanese eel seedlings in China was about 24 tons, while the number of seedlings in this year was only about 10 tons.
The poor harvest of eels has made the price of seedlings high. According to this year's price, the selling price per kilogram of eel is as high as more than 140,000 yuan. This means that the supply of eels may decrease this year, and the price will continue to rise. Therefore, even if the seedling price is high, it can't stop the purchasing enthusiasm of farmers.
Eel, also known as eel, has ranked first among China's export foreign exchange-generating single aquatic products for many consecutive years, with an annual export volume of more than 1 billion US dollars. China's eel industry began in the 1970s. After more than 40 years of development, it has become the largest country in eel farming and export. In 2022, the national eel farming production volume was 281,700 tons, the processing capacity was 139,500 tons, the export volume was 64,000 tons, the eel-related employees exceeded 300,000, and the annual output value of the whole industry chain exceeded 30 billion yuan.
Why are eels so expensive? From scratch to number one in the world, what kind of legendary story has the national eel experienced? Let's explore the "soft gold in the water" from the depths of the distant ocean.
Layers of refined breeding technology
Nanwan Village, Shangguan Town, Fuqing City, Fujian Province, is a well-known professional eel village in China, known as the "town of eels". For more than 40 years, this relatively backward small village has become one of the earliest 100 million-yuan villages in Fuqing by breeding eels.
Every morning, Yang Ming, a 45-year-old farmer, walks into his constant temperature and color steel tile greenhouse to observe the growth of eel. Talking about eel, Yang Ming fell into memory.
In 1979, Yang Zonglong and others from Nanwan Village introduced Japanese eel farming technology and created the first eel farm in the province - Fuqing Nanwan eel farm. Since then, Nanwan Village has formed an indissoluble relationship with eels. Yang Ming, who has studied eel-rearing skills with his parents since he was a child, has a deep affection for eels. He said that although the technology was not mature enough and the production of eels was not high at that time, the price was high. If it was exported abroad, a stubble of fish could earn a house.
When the story of raising eels to get rich was widely spread, a large number of farmers began to enter the eel breeding industry. At this time, the rough breeding technology has become a short board, and it is inevitable to "depend on the sky to eat". Once there is an extreme weather or an outbreak of fish disease, the eels in the pool are often completely destroyed, and farmers will lose their blood, and the risk of breeding is very large.
In 1983, in order to improve the survival rate of eel farming, Yang Zonglong resolutely went to Japan to study the most advanced eel breeding technology. For more than half a year, he stayed in the fish pond day, carefully recording the breeding skills of eels at all stages.
"The most important thing is disease prevention and control. We have to learn to control the water quality environment, rational use of feed and other farming methods, so that eel can get less sick, the survival rate will naturally be higher, and the benefits will come up." Yang Zonglong, who had the technology, did not make a fortune after returning to China, but passed on the technology to more fishermen in Fuqing.
In this regard, eel farming has completely taken root in Shangqi Town, and continues to extend to the surrounding area, and continues to develop in Fujian, Guangdong and other southeastern coastal areas. With the expansion of the scale of farming, farmers in various places have spontaneously established the Eel Association. Under the leadership of the association, farmers have also continuously improved and updated eel breeding technology, and eel farming has become more and more green and efficient.
Algae in the earth pond release sufficient oxygen after photosynthesis. The strong decomposition activity of microorganisms in the soil can purify the water quality, bring the water closer to the wild environment, and eels grow better. However, eels have the nature of drilling mud, and there is a risk of eel drilling mud in soil pond breeding. Farmers put soil at the bottom of the cement pond, combining traditional cement pond breeding with soil pond farming to form soil pond breeding, which not only ensures the growth conditions, but also effectively prevents eel from escaping.
Nowadays, with the progress of science and technology, domestic eel farming has embarked on a road of intelligent breeding.
In the modern factory-based circulating eel farm in China, multiple farms are usually arranged in an orderly manner, and there is a rectangular feeding on the edge of the pool. When throwing bait, the eels compete to grab food in it. After eating and drinking enough, the eel drilled its head into the round hole of feeding & hanging to rest, and its tail swayed with the waves on the surface of the water, like a ball of water plants.
In order to accurately perceive the changes in the growth environment of eels and the growth status of fish bodies, a complete set of intelligent breeding systems are installed in the breeding pond, temperature control systems, sensors, cameras and other advanced equipment, which can monitor and automatically adjust water temperature, water quality, oxygen content and other indicators in real time. At the same time, all water body change data and seedling damage will be uploaded to smart fisheries & & aggregate in real time, establishing a "culture & account", so that the invisible aquaculture process becomes accurate and controllable.
The circulating water system in the breeding plant is also very exquisitely designed. The farming water in the factory is discharged twice a day. After the exhaust tailwater is coarsely filtered, the clear water returns to the breeding pond. After the precipitated part is discharged, the liquid enters the "fish, vegetables, shellfish" symbiotic breeding system to purify after ozone sterilization, and then flows into the reservoir for reculture and utilization; the solid enters the sewage pool and is treated into organic fertilizer.
At present, there are 19 eel varieties in the world. At first, China mainly raised Japanese eels. Later, with the increasing number of Japanese eels, European eels, American eels and other varieties began to breed. The breeding technology of eels of different varieties is also different, and it is no longer the era of "a set of boxing methods to fight the world".
The breeding varieties have developed from a single Japanese eel to a European eel, an American eel and a Pacific two-color eel. The breeding method has been upgraded from the original cement pool breeding to the current soil pond farming and factory-based circular water farming. China's eel breeding technology has been refined layer by layer, and Chinese eel farmers have conquered the eel world by technology.
The picky eel eats the best ingredients
Eel is recognized as the most mysterious fish in the industry, and it has unique growth and reproduction habits. They were born in the depths of the distant Mariana Trench. The adult eels died exhausted after laying eggs. The hatched eel fry grew while migrating to the mainland, and finally lived in freshwater rivers and lakes.
Drifting thousands of miles in the ocean, they can only get energy by eating particulate organic matter "sea snow", which causes them to reach the shore. Although they were 2 years old, they weigh only 0.15 grams. At this time, they are called "glass eels".
When the "glass eel" is caught and enters the nursery, they will grow rapidly within 2 months until the weight reaches 10 grams. After becoming "black", they can officially enter the farm.
There is a popular saying in the eel farming circle: eels don't eat, and eel farmers can't eat. Eels come from the sea. What did they eat along the way? What are the ingredients? No one knows. If you want to feed it, you have to find bait that can make it eat. Yang Ming said that the stage from "glass eel" to "black eel" is the most worrying stage for eel farmers. Eels can live when they open their mouths, but they will die if they don't open their mouths.
The eel is very picky. The eel breeder has tried to feed a variety of bait, and this wayward guy doesn't buy it at all. It was not until the broken red earthworm was used that the eel opened its mouth.
"Red earthworms are rich in dry protein, which can help eel fry grow rapidly, but red earthworms will pollute the environment." Chen Xuezhou, vice president and secretary-general of the Eel Industry Working Committee of the China Fisheries Association, recalled that red earthworms should be raised with pig manure, so at that time, people in Fujian tried to raise pigs first, red earthworms with pig manure, and then eels with red earthworms. Next to the eel pond is the pig manure field. By the stench of pig manure in the air, you can estimate how far it is from the eel pond. He joked.
The growing problem of environmental pollution has aroused complaints from surrounding residents, and also attracted the attention of relevant departments. The research and development of eel open bait has also been put on the agenda.
In fact, after a long period of basic research, the Japanese eel breeding industry developed the opening bait of eel fry as early as 2004, but the price per ton was more than 200,000 yuan, and a villa could be bought at that time.
Since 2005, domestic technical experts have searched for a large amount of data at home and abroad for in-depth investigation and research. It has successively overcome a series of technical difficulties such as raw material selection, nutrition ratio, evoctiveness, viscoelasticity, production process, production equipment, etc. of eel open bait. Finally, in 2008, domestic eel opening bait with independent intellectual production rights was successfully developed, breaking the technical monopoly of Japan, South Korea and other countries, and making it possible to cultivate domestic eels on a large scale.
Compared with imported open bait, domestic eel open bait is only 60,000 to 80,000 yuan per ton, which is not only 2/3 cheaper, but also has a higher nutrient absorption rate, and the breeding efficiency of farmers is also more considerable.
Entering the Tianma Feed Production Factory, more than a dozen feed production lines are running in an orderly manner. The robotic arm stacks the packaged feed in an orderly manner into hills, waiting for the transport truck to transport it to various farms.
Among many production lines, the production line of eel feed is highly valued. Not only because eel feed production requires the use of high-quality imported raw materials, but also because the eel feed production line needs to be "clean".
"The eel has a very sensitive sense of smell. If the feed is stained with the taste of other fish, it will not eat it. Therefore, eel feed strictly implements single-line production and is never mixed with other fish. Referring to these unique experiences, Chen Qingtang said that after constantly hitting the wall, the quality of domestic feed produced is no worse than that of foreign countries.
"The eel has a very sensitive sense of smell. If the feed is stained with the taste of other fish, it will not eat it. Therefore, eel feed strictly implements single-line production and is never mixed with other fish. Referring to these unique experiences, Chen Qingtang said that after constantly hitting the wall, the quality of domestic feed produced is no worse than that of foreign countries.
High-quality food and rest assured
Eel farming and processing were once like a high-risk gambling game. This year, we don't know what will happen next year. Once the market does not meet expectations, it is easy for practitioners to lose their money.
Especially around 1996, the supply in the eel market was oversupped, and it was chaotic and in crisis. At that time, 80% of eels were exported to the Japanese market, and the development of China's eel industry was also subject to Japan.
As domestic eel farming tends to be saturated, many farmers keenly capture business opportunities and quickly shift the industry from eel farming to eel processing, specializing in grilled eel export. As the largest exporter of Chinese eels, Japan has never interrupted the game of interests in the 30 years of the Sino-Japanese eel trade.
Under the influence of the domestic eel market, Japan's local eel industry has been squeezed. For the purpose of trade protection, since the 1990s, Japan has set up technical barriers to eel imports, improved monitoring standards, increased sampling inspections, and taken stricter inspection measures for imported live eels. China's eel exports have become more and more difficult.
"The most unforgettable thing is the year when the 'affirmation list system' was implemented. There were as many as 112 testing standards, and many tests could not be done in China, and the technical means could not be reached." Yang Zonglong sighed for a long time. In May 2006, Japan officially implemented the "Agricultural Chemicals Affirmation List System" for China's exports of agricultural products. In June of the same year, China's eel exports decreased by 58.8% year-on-year, and Fujian Province, which ranked first in export volume, was the most affected, a sharp decrease of 79.6% year-on-year.
Chinese eel enterprises are also willing to spend a lot of money to purchase mass spectrometers, liquid chromatographs and other cutting-edge testing equipment to check their products layer by layer. Eel farming enterprises have reshuffled and begun to change from heavy production to quality and efficiency.
The domestic eel industry has gradually established a scientific and perfect quality and safety control system. Enterprises implement the management mode of "company + base + standardization", and the safety of processed raw materials has been guaranteed. In the process of processing, the supervision of the three aspects of source, factory and products has been continuously increased, and the processing products is safer. All inspection and quarantine departments, government functional departments, industry associations, etc. have also actively played the role of supervision and service management, becoming a solid backing. The construction of integrity system has been vigorously promoted in the industry, and the national quality inspection department has implemented the red and black list system. Once the operation is illegal, the enterprise will be immediately ordered to stop rectification.
Hard work pays off. The quality of Chinese eel has won the favor of consumers around the world, and China has succeeded Japan as the world's largest eel supplier. Even the head of the Japanese Eel Import Group has publicly admitted many times that Chinese Eel is one of the safest foods in the world.
Try your best to solve the mystery of eel growth
Seedlings are the cornerstone of industrial development. Today, with the rapid development of eel breeding and processing technology, the artificial breeding technology of eel seedlings has been slow to overcome. At present, every eel we eat is a gift from nature, and every eel fry depends on the natural hatching in the deep sea.
Seed catchers know best about the movement of the ocean current. When the ocean current approaches, the fry of the sapling also arrived successfully with the drift. The marine operations of seedling catchers begin every winter and end in May-June of the following year.
It is no accident that eel catches have decreased sharply this year. In the past 30 years, affected by ecological environment and other factors, the area of natural distribution of eels has shrunk significantly, the production of natural eels has decreased year by year, and the price of eel seedlings on the market has become higher, seriously affecting the eel farming industry in various countries around the world.
In fact, both Japan, which is addicted to eels, and China, which has become the largest country in eel farming, are tirelessly cracking the growth code of eel.
In 1991, Japanese researchers collected more than 1,000 1 cm long eel fry on the west side of the Mariana Trench. After comparison of DNA, it was determined that the egg-producing site of the Japanese eel was near the seamount on the west side of the world's deepest Maliana Trench. In 2000, Japan made a breakthrough in the technology of artificially breeding eels. In 2010, the Japan Aquaculture Comprehensive Research Center achieved "full-artificial" breeding of eels, that is to say, artificially bred eels in Japan can give birth to second-generation eels with breeding ability after ripening and mating. However, it is reported that although Japanese research institutions have achieved "full artificial" breeding, they have never seen the news of mass production and further marketization of eels.
In China, there has been a natural distribution of eels in nearly 3,000 kilometers of main streams and many tributaries from the Beibu Gulf in the south, the Bohai Bay in the north, and from the mouth of the Yangtze River to the Jinsha River in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. The artificial breeding technology of eels has also been listed in five-year plans such as the Seventh Five-Year Plan, Eighth Five-Year Plan and Ninety-Year Plan, and some breakthroughs have been made. However, due to the slow process of artificial eel breeding, it is difficult to promote. The domestic eel breeding process once stagnated. After 2001, this work was no longer included in a major national science and technology plan.
"Our research on artificial breeding of eels in China is equivalent to that of Japan in the early 1990s." In 2008, Liu Liping, a professor at Shanghai Ocean University, began to specialize in artificial breeding of Japanese eels. His scientific research team is a representative of the high level of eel breeding technology in China. At present, it can steadily obtain high-quality zygoons and hatch millions of first hatchers. Some of them can become willow eel precursors, but the maximum survival time is only 21 days.
The stagnation of scientific research brings not only the backwardness of the research level, but also the fault of talents. Scientists who studied eel breeding technology in the early years have long withdrawn from the historical dance. Most of the existing scientists are monk halfway. There is no transmission belt of the older generation. Many technical data needed for experiments have to come back from scratch.
Recently, Chen Tiansheng, a professor at the Engineering Research Center of the Ministry of Modern Industry and Technology of Education of the School of Aquaculture of Jimei University, took the students to buy a batch of parent eels. In the next two to 3 months, his team will inject this batch of eels with hormones every week to ripen them to mate and lay eggs. At present, the hormones used for domestic eel ripening originate from the pituitary gland of carp, but there is no commercial product for carp pituitary gland. If you want to get it, you can only rely on private customization.
"So far, the growth habits of eel are still unclear, and many questions are waiting to be answered. The research on the artificial breeding technology of eel is not a 'short, flat and fast' process. It needs to let scientific researchers calm down to study, rather than focus on short-term goal assessment. When it comes to artificial breeding of eels, Chen Tiansheng seems particularly urgent.
In many domestic scientific research projects, the cooperation model of industry-university-research can form a win-win situation in the development of scientific research institutions and enterprises. However, for the eel industry, the difficult breeding process is difficult to bring benefits to enterprises immediately. Enterprises are unwilling to invest in financial resources, and scientific research expenses can only rely on state support.
In other words, only by setting up special funds and post scientists at the national level, cultivating a number of scientific research teams, building a complete talent system, and accumulating a large amount of research data can the artificial breeding technology of eel make a breakthrough.
In March this year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs held a press conference on the law enforcement action of "China's Fishing Administration Bright Sword" and added a standardized management of eel seedling fishing law enforcement action to the "Bright Sword 2024". At the end of April, the "National Joint Aquatic Breeding Plan - Joint Seminar on Eel Breeding" was held at Shanghai Ocean University.
Under the layered layout, artificial breeding of the girfish has been placed in an important position. It is necessary to take batch cultivation of artificial breeding of willow leaf fins as the main focus, continue to optimize the artificial breeding technology of Eel, obtain high-quality combinding, strengthen research on the cultivation of laverfish, and strive to break through the willow leaf Eel cultivation technology and eventually cultivate glass Eel." The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs &&, ultimately, China will form a one-stop technology system for the preservation of eel species resources, reserve parent fish culture, eel parent fish ripening and production and the cultivation of the first in hatching fish.
Only by controlling the core technology of breeding can we maintain the stability and controllability of the eel industry chain. Japan has made breakthroughs in the technical level of artificial eel breeding. Domestic seedling research should be followed up in time to avoid the eel industry chain being 'stuck by the neck'. Chen Tiansheng said that eel breeding is once again included in the national plan. With policy support and such a huge market foundation, we expect scientific researchers in the industry to provoke this burden, raise this fry as soon as possible, and let artificially cultivated eel swim to the market and the world. ( Source: Farmers' Daily)