Chinese shrimp pioneer expands indoor output

Major new financial support looks set to boost shrimp production in sheds, a long-time government solution to upping Chinese shrimp production, according to a major authority in China’s shrimp aquaculture industry.

Shrimp producer He Su Hua, named one of China Top Ten Shrimp Breeding Elite by the Rudong Co. Shrimp Breeding Society, was honored its annual conference and awards ceremony recently.

Rudong, in Jiangsu Province, is “ground zero”of the shrimp breeding in sheds, with the largest concentration of covered ponds producing up to three crops per year of vannemei shrimp.

“It’s a very high risk business,” He said.

Farmers have struggled with getting sheds of a consistent quality while also meeting stricter local requirements on pollution of soil caused by shrimp farming, He said.

“We have to improve efficiency,” said He, who got his award for the speed of his expansion but also because his leaving a corporate job for shrimp farming brought confidence to the sector.

Having graduated from Zhejiang University in 1982, He left a job at Shenzhen Air to set up 26 shrimp sheds in Rudong. He now has 328 and plans to have 900 by the end of 2017 – some of them co-owned with local farmers in a cooperative.