Tuesday, March 13

Another day in China and another journey to the "smaller" city of Zhongshan (2 Million people). This particular city specializes in production of household goods and furniture. Being only an hour away from the ocean, the weather has been subtropical but breezy and cooler today. We hear it is nice in South Dakota so we have been a little jealous while dealing with cooler conditions here.
Our first stop of the day took us to Zhongshan Foodstuffs Imp & Exp Co. LTD of Guangddong. This is a large corporation consisting of several different entities. Their company includes a large pig farm, pigeon farm, chicken farm, pharmaceutical plant, and a feed mill. They generally can market up to 1.3 million pigeons, 600,000 chickens, and over 200,000 hogs in a given year. Although we did not get to visit any of the facilities, we got the opportunity to discuss their operations with the company's CEO and top delegates within each division. Last year this company brought in $150 million yuan in corporate revenue which is equivalent to about 24 million dollars in the U.S. Most of the company's products are sold into areas of Guangzhou, Macao, and Hong Kong. One of the most interesting facts is the fact that they face the same challenges with PRRS and they do not have problems with PSE. They also do not have issues with animal activists in China like we have in the United States. They were surprised to hear that people make that big of a deal about animal welfare when there are so many people to feed in the world.
After we finished our visit with Zhongshan Foodstuff we went and ate a specialty lunch consisting of pigeon, fish balls, a type of specialty fish, a rice ball that tasted somewhat like funnel cake, pork strips, chinese pork ribs, broccoli, and pinneapple filled bread. It was very interesting!
During the afternoon, we had the opportunity to visit an aquaculture farm. This farm specializes in aquatic sales, breeding, and processing of fresh water fish, mainly Grass Carp. They operate 260 acres worth of aquaculture farms over 19 sites in this area. The main facility has stations to monitor the pH, temperature, and oxygen concentration of the ponds constantly and have a laboratory to analyze diseases or illnesses in the fish. Yearly revenue for this particular company is 500 million US dollars. Exporting over 5000 tons of canned fish and 8000 tons of frozen fish every year it could be seen that this area of China is the leading producer of fresh water fish products in the world. This company's products are sold around the world, inluding the US, with a target market in Hong Kong and Macao. Harvest occurs by mass netting in their large fish ponds and restocking/harvesting happens up to three times a year. Average weight for a market fish is approximately 2.5 kg with weights varying upon customer preference. To achieve market weight the fish are fed mainly grass but also a pelleted mix at 25-30% protein that includes fish meal and soybean meal. Vaccinations against diseases are actually common on aquaculture farms with injections given in the back muscle of the fish. This farm vaccinated for the three most common types of diseases associated with fish. One question we had for the delegates present was how are people taught to mangage an operation such as this and where does reasearch and education take place? We were surprised to hear that there are three aquaculture universities in China. One unique thing about this company is that they have been developing a new product through research and development, called Crispy Grass Carp. This product changes the fish's meat texture from tender to crispy. We were surprised to find that this is the type of fish that we had for lunch.
It was a very interesting day since we had the opportunity to learn about many different aspects of Chinese agriculture. With most of us from crop and livestock farms, it was very new for most of us to learn about aquaculture and it's impact in Chinese agriculture. This was also interesting to us because fish is not as common of a food as beef and pork in the US, especially Carp. Tonight we will get to relax and enjoy a free night in Guangzho. Many people are looking forward to eating KFC, McDonalds or Pizza Hut, which will be a vast change from the traditional Chinese foods we've been eating.
Tomorrow brings another adventure and another fascinating aspect of China's agriculture. We thank you again for reading and look forward to filling you in on tomorrows endeavors!
SDSU Agricultural China Tour