Guolian Crayfish Breeding Biotechnology has reportedly become the first crayfish farm in the world to earn Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certification for responsible seafood farming.
Located in Yiyang in Hunan Province, the 850 ha research base is a collaboration between Guolian and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
With an annual capacity of 2,000 tonnes of Red Swamp Crawfish, the facility has undergone a major transformation to gain the ASC accolade.
“In order to achieve ASC certification, we changed our farming practices in several ways,” said Dr Li Changbin, technical director of Guolian’s Crayfish Breeding Scientific Research Base.
“To meet the requirements of the ASC standard, we faced major technical challenges - for instance, in the selection of seeds and with escape management. At the same time we’ve met the other requirements, such as for water quality, disease prevention and control, and feed.”
China is the world’s largest producer of crayfish, with 2.5 million tonnes farmed in 2022. It is seen as an exotic species in China and unregulated growth in the wild is strictly restricted by law. Rice paddies provide the ideal habitat for crayfish and farming these areas has become an important industry, helping alleviate poverty in economically-challenged regions and increasing incomes fourfold.
Escapes pose a challenge, however, so to meet ASC’s standards, Guolian has installed protective fencing along the edges of the rice field and isolation nets at the entrance of the waterway.
“The robust requirements of the ASC standard are improving ecological protection of cropland-aquaculture in China, improving quality at the seafood farms and contributing to improved livelihoods for local communities,” said Chris Ninnes, chief executive of ASC.
