CCTV News: Scientific and technological innovation helps the cold water of the snowy areas of Qinghai Plateau is breaking the inherent perception of "no fish farming without the sea". Today, the daily output of "Plateau Salmon" has exceeded 50 tons, and it has "swimmed" to many countries around the world. How did the plateau canyon give birth to such a hot industry? SMEs build dreams of salmon "fish warehouse"
The Longyangxia Reservoir in Qinghai Province, known as the "plateau miracle", is as high as 2,600 meters, with an average annual water temperature of 12 degrees Celsius and does not freeze all year round. But who would have thought that this northwest plateau, which does not even have the sea, would hide the "heart" of China's salmon industry. What is even more shocking is that in the once rare canyon, there are now seven small and medium-sized breeding companies gathered. They are using their fighting spirit of "reversing the will of heaven and changing fate" to stir the cold lake water into a hot industry.
Fishing workers shouted their phonets to fish in the cages. Each of these lively salmon weighed about ten kilograms, and this net was about three to four thousand kilograms. These large and small circles on the water surface are the breeding cages of cold water fish set up by local enterprises. More than 15,000 tons of salmon are caught from these cages and sent to the whole country and even around the world every year.
In the eyes of enterprises, the reason why Qinghai salmon can "compete" globally is not only due to the high-quality breeding environment in the local area, but also comes from advanced breeding and processing technology.
The breeding in Longyangxia has a very big feature, which is ultra-low density breeding. On average, there is only one fish at most for each cubic meter of water, that is, a cage with a circumference of 160 meters. More than 99.5% of it is water, and only 0.5% is fish, which gives salmon a good living space. The fish caught are slowly sucked into the fish water separator through the vacuum fish suction pump independently developed by the company. This is like taking an elevator. It not only reduces the fish's stress response, but also ensures their deliciousness and quality to the greatest extent. Technology empowers and improves efficiency to help the salmon industry "accelerate"
Where will these salmon be shipped next? In the processing plant 20 kilometers away, a fish takes less than 4 hours from fishing, returning to the factory to processing, and leaving the factory. In this intelligent production line, the fish that just came out of water passes through the automatic weighing table, and the system will strictly classify it, from 2 kilograms of sashimi to 4.5 kilograms of banquets, and are accurately connected to global customers in 5 levels.
Technology is no longer exclusive to giants. The fish viscera treatment lines and smart packaging machines independently developed by these small and medium-sized enterprises have increased production efficiency by 1.6 times compared to traditional methods. It should be mentioned in particular that this company has put into use the blockchain traceability system in 2025, allowing each fish to go overseas with a "electronic passport". Foreign customers can scan it and see how many "plateau packages" the fish has eaten and how many kilometers of cold waters it swims through. The "electronic passport" can record 87 growth data.
Not only that, in the past two years, the Longyangxia salmon deep processing production line has been completed. Based on the original export frozen products, it can be processed to varying degrees according to the different needs of customers. The product forms range from whole fish to fish fillets, from raw food to cooked food, making the entire industrial chain more traceable from fish eggs to dining table. Domestic salmon "going to the sea" is best-selling in 12 countries
At present, the salmon produced in Longyangxia has a market share of more than 50% of the domestic salmon market, and is also exported to 12 countries and regions including East Asia, Southeast Asia, America, Europe, etc. The export value accounts for 98% of the total export of similar products in the country. More and more domestic salmon are "swimming" on overseas tables.
In the past two years, with the dual support of the special support for the cold water fish industry in Qinghai Province, small and medium-sized enterprises have become more confident and motivated. Qinghai has no sea, but with its unique natural resources, the lively cold-water fish "swimming" into a vibrant "hot industry" at the source of Sanjiang.
