{"id":1158894,"date":"2023-06-27T10:38:11","date_gmt":"2023-06-27T08:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asc-aqua.org\/?post_type=news&p=1158894"},"modified":"2024-10-16T10:19:27","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T08:19:27","slug":"guolian-aquaculture-makes-significant-changes-to-become-worlds-first-asc-certified-crayfish-farm","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/asc-aqua.org\/news\/guolian-aquaculture-makes-significant-changes-to-become-worlds-first-asc-certified-crayfish-farm\/","title":{"rendered":"Guolian Aquaculture makes significant changes to become world’s first ASC certified crayfish farm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Guolian (Yiyang) Crayfish Breeding Biotechnology Co., Ltd. recently became the first crayfish farm in the world to earn ASC certification for responsible seafood farming.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Guolian\u2019s ASC certified crayfish farm is located on the Guolian (Yiyang) Crayfish Breeding Scientific Research Base in the city of Yiyang in Hunan Province, China. The 850-hectare (2,100-acre) research base is an industry, academia and research collaboration between Guolian and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. The farm\u2019s annual capacity is 2,000 tonnes of Red Swamp Crawfish (Procambarus clarkii<\/em>).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re proud to be the first ASC certified crayfish farm in the world,\u201d said Mr. Chen Han, President of Guolian Aquaculture Group. \u201cASC certification is an internationally renowned and highly recognised gold standard in the aquaculture industry. Obtaining it is a full validation of Guolian\u2019s active efforts to transform and improve crayfish farming.\u201d\"\"<\/p>\n

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Major transformations to achieve ASC certification<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to achieve ASC certification, we changed our farming practices in several ways,” said Dr. Li Changbin, Technical Director of Guolian\u2019s Crayfish Breeding Scientific Research Base. “To meet the requirements of the ASC standard, we faced major technical challenges\u2014for instance, in the selection of seeds and with escape management. At the same time we\u2019ve met the other requirements, such as for water quality, disease prevention and control, and feed.”<\/p>\n

The Macrobrachium<\/em>, Cherax<\/em>, Procambarus<\/em>, Astacus <\/em>and Penaeus<\/em>\u2014requires traceability of seeds, or young crayfish, to ensure those used on the farm come from high-quality stock. If the quality of seed crayfish is poor and the survival rate is too low, it cannot meet the ASC requirements. When the quality of seeds is good, the survival rate, spawning rate and hatching rate are high, which ensures that ecological resources for the farm have been utilised sustainably.<\/p>\n

ASC certification also requires robust escape management practices. Although crayfish have been farmed in China for nearly 100 years, they are still an exotic species, and unregulated growth of crayfish in the wild is strictly restricted by Chinese law.<\/p>\n

The most suitable habitats for crayfish in China are in the Yangtze River Basin, where rice paddy farmers have historically struggled economically. In recent years, seasonal farming crayfish in rice paddies has become an important industry and alleviates poverty in agricultural communities in the region. Rice paddy crayfish farming can increase the income of local farmers by 200 to 300 percent, greatly improving the living standards of local communities. To achieve balance between the economic benefits of crayfish farming and the ecological need to manage an exotic species, escape prevention is a core requirement to achieve ASC certification.\"\"<\/p>\n

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Along with other efforts, Guolian has installed protective fencing along the edges of the rice field and isolation nets at the entrance of the waterway to meet the ASC requirements for escape management.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very pleased that Guolian has earned ASC certification and to see the increase overall of ASC certified responsible seafood farms in China,\u201d . \u201cThe 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. We hope ASC continues to help set the standard for the sustainable development of China’s aquaculture industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Global markets for crayfish include the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and more, where demand for ASC certified responsibly farmed crayfish can now begin to be met.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1158896,"template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-1158894","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asc-aqua.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1158894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asc-aqua.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asc-aqua.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asc-aqua.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1158896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asc-aqua.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1158894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asc-aqua.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1158894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}