Status in 2014: Overall stable

According to the statistics of the first half of 2014, the freshwater aquaculture area was 6.325 million hectares, an increase of 5.07% over the same period of the previous year. Among the freshwater aquaculture area, the pond aquaculture area was 2.6698 million hectares, an increase of 3.17% over the same period of the previous year. This means that my country's freshwater aquaculture has maintained a stable development, the aquaculture area has grown steadily, and the supply of aquatic products is sufficient.

Correspondingly, the prices of aquatic products were generally stable. Although affected by the downward pressure on the economy and the policy environment, the sales of famous, special and high-quality products decreased and the prices fell, but the transactions of bulk varieties were still active, and the overall purchase and sales of the market were booming. In addition, in the second half of 2014, the price of bulk freshwater products decreased during the period of intensive cultivation and marketing, but the price was still higher than that of the same period of the previous year due to the continuous increase in production costs.

The price of bulk freshwater fish was relatively stable year-on-year, and the outbreak of bird flu in early 2013 pushed up the price of bulk freshwater fish. On the other hand, the price of pork, which is a substitute for bulk freshwater fish, continued to fall in early 2014, reducing market demand, but with the gradual recovery of live pig prices, the price of bulk freshwater fish rebounded.

On the whole, the reasons for the price fluctuations of aquatic products across the country in 2014 were similar: firstly, due to the influence of the "eight regulations" and "six prohibitions" of the central government, the prices of medium and high-grade aquatic products fell sharply; secondly, since 2014, the price level The downward pressure has increased, especially the price of agricultural and sideline products fluctuated downward, and the prices of bulk aquatic products, which are the main substitutes, have been negatively affected. However, due to the above reverse factors, the market price of aquatic products is basically stable.

It is worth noting that frequent natural disasters have an increasingly obvious impact on fisheries. Among them, typhoon weather caused serious damage to aquaculture in many southern provinces and cities.

2015 Outlook: Challenges and Opportunities Coexist

The problems brought about by the development of freshwater aquaculture have also come one after another. Solving the problems currently exposed in the domestic market is an important prerequisite for the sustainable development of freshwater aquaculture in 2015.

First of all, when the aquaculture industry was at a low point in 2013, some farmers blindly followed the trend and adopted the method of reducing density and feeding, which did not fundamentally change the loss situation. Second, the production of freshwater aquaculture species has continued to increase, but the prices of emerging species have not improved. The freshwater fish species in my country are mainly grass carp, silver carp, common carp, bighead carp, crucian carp and tilapia. The output of these six categories of freshwater fish accounts for 78% of the total output of farmed freshwater fish in my country, while the output of other species is smaller. Compared with other countries, my country's cultured fish species are particularly single, and this problem generally exists in various provinces and cities. The single species not only causes fierce market competition, but also easily destroys the ecological environment of aquaculture. At the same time, consumers are faced with the problem of food safety from "can't afford it" to "don't dare to eat", which will further promote the transformation of freshwater aquaculture from "quantity to quality".

In fact, in order to adapt to the continuous expansion of the fishery market, aquaculture technology is also constantly looking for new directions to improve production and quality. At present, the state vigorously promotes professional fishery cooperatives and fishery parks, and the problem of singleness of farmed fish species has been solved to a certain extent. The rise of fishery parks and fishery professional cooperatives has also allowed more and more farmers to join them, come out of the original "single fighting", and share resources and profits at the same time. This shows that my country's freshwater aquaculture has turned to the way of benefiting from scale. The innovation of aquaculture concept, the change of aquaculture mode, and the formation of large-scale aquaculture will be the inevitable direction of the development of freshwater aquaculture in 2015.

In general, my country has vast waters suitable for aquaculture and many species suitable for aquaculture. However, due to differences in consumption capacity and habits, coupled with the lack of timely market information, the main aquaculture species and aquaculture models in various regions are relatively fixed. This in turn leads to the contradiction between supply and demand in the market, which leads to fluctuations in the price of end products. Only by continuously tracking and paying attention to market information, rationally adjusting breeding species and adopting new breeding models based on market demand, can we fundamentally solve the contradiction between market supply and demand and minimize the impact of price fluctuations of terminal products on breeding efficiency.