Zhejiang’s first all-land-based farmed Atlantic salmon chilled products are shipped to Hong Kong

China News Service, Ningbo, November 11th (Zhang Bin, Qian Zhukai) A batch of chilled Atlantic salmon (salmon) produced by the Sino-Norwegian joint venture Nordic Aquatic Products (Ningbo) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Nordic Aquatic Products) was released by Xiangshan Customs under Ningbo Customs on the 11th and set off for Hong Kong, China. This is the first time that chilled products processed from Atlantic salmon farmed in land-based circulating water (RAS) in Zhejiang Province have been exported overseas.

Recently, Ningbo Customs officers inspected exported chilled salmon. Photo by Lin Yan

Atlantic salmon is mainly produced in the northern European seas. The suitable growth water temperature is 10°C to 14°C. Large-scale farming under natural conditions along the East China Sea coast near 30 degrees north latitude has long been regarded as a problem. Nordic Aquaculture's Xiangshan Gaotang Island base breaks away from the traditional offshore cage farming model and uses the East China Sea water. After multiple purifications and constant temperature control, the pool water is stably maintained at 12°C to 14°C, becoming Asia's first large-scale land-based circulating water (RAS) Atlantic salmon breeding base.

The breeding sources used are high-quality purebred fish eggs introduced from Northern Europe. After completing the isolation and quarantine in China, the entire process is cultivated and raised to adult fish in the indoor pool of the Xiangshan base. This batch of goods supplied to Hong Kong is taken from Atlantic salmon grown independently at the base. After being caught, it is quickly slaughtered, divided, and kept fresh at low temperature to make chilled products. Compared with salmon imported across the ocean, local farmed products have outstanding freshness advantages. The processed chilled products can be delivered directly to the Yangtze River Delta within 5 hours, covering major domestic cities 24 hours a day.

From the beginning of the project, Xiangshan Customs has launched full-cycle assistance, from entry isolation and quarantine of fish eggs, tax reduction and exemption customs clearance of imported breeding equipment, to the establishment of a biosafety and epidemic prevention system for the farm, and has continued to follow up on the project construction. In response to new issues such as enterprises without export processing experience and applying for export food registration, Xiangshan Customs provides "one-on-one" guidance to enterprises to build a HACCP food safety control system, sort out key control points of slaughtering and segmentation, and cold chain management, and establish a full-chain traceability system from fish egg cultivation, adult fish breeding, intensive processing, and cold chain delivery. It can quickly complete the registration of export food production enterprises and help enterprises obtain export qualifications.

It is understood that the annual production capacity of Nordic Aquatic Products Xiangshan Gaotang Island Base is 4,000 tons in the first phase. After the completion of the second phase, the total production capacity will be increased to 8,000 tons. Xiangshan Customs stated that the customs department will continue to help local specialty aquatic products enter Hong Kong, Macao and overseas, and transform coastal resource advantages and fishery technology advantages into new driving forces for the high-quality development of the marine industry.