A prize of $200,000 will be awarded to the first team to produce and sell 100,000 tonnes of aquafeeds that do not contain marine animal meal or oil by September 15, 2017.

Scots set Chinese standard

A project that has helped to revolutionise tilapia production in the Chinese state of Hainan, owes its success to adopting the production model used by the Scottish salmon industry.

Published Last updated

Anton Immink, Aquaculture Director at the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), who helped to implement Hainan’s aquaculture improvement project (AIP), explains to Fish Farming Expert: “This was a prime example of what we have managed to achieve by adopting management and planning from Scotland’s salmon industry.

“Scotland has an amazing brand and brand reputation because it uses scientifically-based limits: firebreaks between aquaculture zones; management areas; and co-ordinated treatments, stocking policies and fallowing.”

The essence of SFP’s involvement was showing the province’s tilapia farmers the advantages of taking a holistic approach to aquaculture, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that even competing fish farms can share a common waterway without impacting each other, or the environment.

Anton continues: “When I arrived in SFP there was much interest in certification by the likes of ASC and GAA but the weakness of these schemes is that they judge farms in isolation. We wanted to do something bigger, so I took the model and the Code of Good Practice from Scotland in order to ensure cooperation and coordination within each management area.

“Scotland doesn’t realise that, along with Norway, it has the best managed aquaculture industry in the world, and for the last three years I’ve been telling this story around the world.

“Without area management the industry is very vulnerable to disease outbreaks – just look at the example of Thailand, where an EMS epidemic caused shrimp production to decrease from 600,000-700,000 tonnes per year to around 250,000 tonnes. Likewise, in Chile, where poor management led to the ISA outbreak, which almost wiped out the industry.”

The end result of SFP’s involvement is the implementation of China’s first industry-led set of standards – which include a strong focus on improved disease management, both on-farm and between neighbours – for tilapia farming.

The implementation of the standards was aided by the fact that most of the region's tilapia is exported to the US and sold in Walmart – who are a global partner of the SFP – which was keen to encourage sustainable production.

“This is the best example of a zonal AIP in the world and also one that has strongly transitioned from SFP to industry-led, with support of a local NGO China Blue, an international buyer, Fishin’ Co, (which supplies to Walmart) and many key local industry leaders,” said Anton.

SFP became involved in the project in 2011, and in 2012 SFP hosted its first successful aquaculture policy roundtable, with key processors, farmers and seed and feed producers in attendance.

Together, they established Hainan Tilapia Sustainability Alliance, which continued the improvement project work in the sector, with a stronger and stronger role in maintaining the AIP.

In 2013 SFP invited a Chinese delegation to come to Scotland to see the advantages of area management agreements at first hand, visiting a Scottish Salmon Company site on Loch Fyne, amongst other aquaculture businesses. Impressed by what they saw, in 2015 the Alliance issued the first version of its Code of Good Practices (CoGP) for Hainan Tilapia Farming, with technical assistance from the Pearl River Institute of Aquaculture and Hainan University.

Today, 35 pilot farms – which, according to Anton, account for “roughly 20-30% of the 300,000 tonnes of tilapia produced in the region each year” – are in the process of adopting the code, with technicians working with farmers on site. It is the first-ever regional and industry-led initiative in China to promote sustainable aquaculture practices.

“Han Han, the CEO of the new China Blue and former SFP staffer, has taken lessons from the Scottish salmon industry and other leaders to help steer the industry on a course towards true sustainability,” Anton concludes.