Surging success

Hubei province's Yidu county provides another potent example to demonstrate that environmental conservation doesn't need to be in conflict with economic development.

As a response to President Xi's directives to safeguard the Yangtze and curb overdevelopment, the Yidu government's decision to relocate fish farms inland in 2016 has produced two significant outcomes: fostering the sustainable growth of the local sturgeon industry and revitalizing the Qingjiang River, another tributary of the Yangtze.

The sturgeon farming sector in the county took shape during the 1990s. By 2016, this industry had become a cornerstone of the local economy, involving nearly 560 households and accounting for 30 percent of the nation's sturgeon output.

Back then, the farming operations covered an extensive water surface area of roughly 8.65 square kilometers. The heightened utilization of fodder to enhance sturgeon growth resulted in remarkable eutrophication within the Qingjiang, causing water quality in some parts to plummet below Grade V.

Deng Zhongzheng, who had 30 cages of sturgeons in the Qingjiang, was keenly aware of the increasingly polluted situation in the river back then. Fish cages for sturgeon farming covered most of the surface of the watercourse, with only a narrow channel left. "Certain sections of the river appeared black, while some others took on a reddish hue, dotted by a lot of rubbish and dead fish," he recalled.

No longer having to endure the challenges of weather on his floating farm on the Qingjiang, Deng now works at an onshore base known as "sturgeon valley".

Built in 2018, the base covers an area of over 120,000 square meters and accommodates more than a million sturgeon, according to the Yidu government.

Ji Jianyi, general manager of Qingjiang Sturgeon Valley Special Aquaculture Co, said the base is a green and intelligent facility that guarantees "win-win outcomes for ecological improvement and profitability".

Drawing water from the Qingjiang, the base uses an advanced digital platform to precisely regulate water quality, flow rate, temperature and dissolved oxygen levels, effectively replicating the ecological conditions of the watercourse, he said.

The platform, which can be controlled via smartphone, carries out continuous monitoring over every corner of the base's fish farming area, he said.

"Integrating monitoring, detection and control functions, it can accurately manage and automatically carry out operations such as feeding and oxygenation," he said.

Ji highlighted the adoption of a microbiological circulation purification system, which utilizes high-pressure oxygen for the treatment of excrement and sewage. The treated water still needs to undergo multiple purification processes before being discharged back into the Qingjiang.

The application of digital technologies has enhanced the cost-effectiveness of sturgeon farming. This factory-style mode only needs 1 percent of the area needed by the previous floating farms, and water consumption has reduced by 95 percent, said Liu Zhongxing, an executive at the base.

"Both the production capacity and quality of sturgeon roe have seen significant improvements," he said.

In the caviar processing workshop of the sturgeon valley, workers, clad in protective gear, swiftly process the freshly harvested roe. Outside the workshop, refrigerated trucks stand ready to dispatch the latest batch to Shanghai and Shenzhen in Guangdong province.

Such scenes of organized urgency have become routine for workers in the workshop, who send over 10,000 tins of caviar daily to Europe, the United States and the Middle East, as well as domestic metropolises such as Beijing and Shanghai.

This relentless demand has kept sales executive Ma Min extremely busy. "Currently, 150,000 boxes of caviar are awaiting delivery for domestic orders, while we have received multiple urgent requests to fulfill 3 metric tons of international orders," she said, adding that despite a heavily packed production calendar, new orders keep coming in.

Yidu has 24 sturgeon farming enterprises, which produce 10,000 tons of sturgeon and 180 tons of caviar annually.

The county's sturgeon caviar is exported to over 20 countries and regions, fulfilling a third of the global market demand. The annual output value of its sturgeon farming industry has reached nearly 1 billion yuan, according to the Yidu government.

To address the surging demand, the sturgeon valley is expanding its sturgeon farming area and enhancing its caviar processing capacity. Scheduled for completion by the end of September, this expansion will boost its annual caviar output capacity sixfold to 600 tons.

With the quality of water in the Qingjiang consistently at or above Grade II, and the continuous boom of the sturgeon farming industry, the local government has a more ambitious plan. Yidu aims to harness the industry's potential by developing a modern industrial park that combines fish breeding, aquaculture processing and comprehensive multichannel distribution.

"We aim to attract 1 million visitors annually and foster the development of a 10-billion-yuan industry through strategic collaboration across the entire supply chain," it said in a statement.