Chapter 316 - 159: Drought (Part 2)

Chapter 316: Chapter 159: Drought (Part 2)

"Boss, what does this have to do with our feed division?" Fang Yi asked, completely confused.

"It’s related. On one hand, you need to prepare for production cuts. On the other, bring out the No. 14 eel feed. That formula allows eels to maintain their normal growth rate in a saltwater farming environment."

"No. 14 feed? So that’s what this formula is for." Fang Yi had previously thought the hundreds of formulas for eel and Egyptian Catfish feed were just to prevent competitors from copying them.

Jiang Miao continued, "Also, get the No. 36 feed formula for Egyptian Catfish. This feed allows them to be farmed in saltwater. As long as the water’s salinity doesn’t exceed 12‰, it guarantees their rapid growth."

Fang Yi quickly asked, "Saltwater? Are we going to license it to other companies, then?"

"Of course. Our company doesn’t produce standard feed anyway. License this formula to the Feed Association. Have the producers pay a 100-yuan patent fee per ton. We’ll handle the eel’s saltwater feed formula the same way."

"I understand." As the head of the feed division and Hailufeng Company’s liaison to the Feed Association, it was Fang Yi’s job to handle these matters. Jiang Miao certainly didn’t have time for it.

Haida Group had been worrying about this year’s drought. After receiving the notice from Hailufeng Company and the Feed Association, its chairman, Xue Hua, looked visibly relieved. "Jiang Miao is a true lifesaver for Haida."

"General Manager Xue, should we move to full-scale production of the new feed formula now?" the head of the feed production department asked urgently.

Snapping out of it, Xue Hua didn’t waste a moment. Time was of the essence. He quickly assigned tasks. "The feed production department will begin producing the new feed, but keep the volume under control."

"Understood."

"The sales department needs to immediately familiarize themselves with the new formula’s technical manual to better communicate with the fish farmers."

"Yes, General Manager Xue."

"I’ll personally lead a team to run tests at our farms."

It wasn’t that Xue Hua doubted Jiang Miao, but he had to be cautious. With billions in raw materials at stake, he couldn’t afford any carelessness.

「At a Haida Group fish farm near Nansha District.」

As the tests began, Xue Hua and his team stared at the fishpond. After switching to water with 5‰ salinity, the Egyptian Catfish inside became less active. They clearly weren’t adapting well, and his expression grew grim.

Still, he chose to trust Hailufeng Company and Jiang Miao.

He planned to stay at the farm for the next few days.

Farming Egyptian Catfish in saltwater couldn’t be done overnight; it had to be a phased process. The first week required 5‰ salinity, transitioning to 8‰ in the second week, and only in the third week could it be raised to 11‰.

As for why they didn’t push the limit to 12‰, the main concern was that evaporation would increase the salinity. It was crucial to leave a buffer.

The technical manual from Jiang Miao recommended that a large, technically capable aquaculture base like Haida Group’s could use a critical salinity of 11‰.

For smaller, independent fish farmers, the manual advised them to first purchase a salinity meter and use water with 10‰ salinity. They were also instructed to test the water’s salinity daily. If the temperature rose above 35 degrees Celsius, they were required to test it twice a day to ensure the salinity didn’t go over the limit, and they had to be ready to add freshwater at a moment’s notice.

Of course, this only applied to farms near the coast. As for inland farms, they could only leave it up to fate.

For saltwater farming, farms located near a river estuary could draw water directly from it. The brackish water in an estuary typically has a salinity between 2.5‰ and 12‰.

Using standard seawater with 33‰ salinity could save at least a third of their freshwater. If they used brackish water from an estuary, they might not need any freshwater at all.

For instance, Haida Group’s farms in Nansha District were near the Pearl River estuary, so they only needed to pump in brackish water with 10‰ salinity.

The few online shops that sold salinity meters had been baffled for the past two weeks. Their meters, which usually only sold one or two units a month, were suddenly getting hundreds, even thousands, of orders.

Sellers of sunshade netting were also seeing business boom.

On the particularly arid Leizhou Peninsula, everyone at Hengxing Group had been extremely worried, but now they could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

This was because their company’s Egyptian Catfish farming model was similar to Hailufeng Company’s—a hybrid of operating their own farms and contracting with independent growers.

If something went wrong, it wouldn’t just be their own company’s loss; their contracted farmers would also suffer devastating financial blows.

Now, Hailufeng Company’s timely intervention had bought them some breathing room. By using seawater to reduce freshwater consumption and supplementing with temporarily pumped groundwater, their farms could last for several more months.

In fact, the Feed Association was even more anxious than these corporations.

The large-scale production of Egyptian Catfish Meal had already reduced domestic farming costs for fish, shrimp, and crab by nearly 20%, and for poultry and pigs by 2.3%.

If a large-scale reduction in Egyptian Catfish Meal production occurred now due to the drought, it could cause market prices for seafood, poultry, and pork to rise again. Since the Lunar New Year, the prices of most meats—with the exception of large herbivores like beef and mutton—had been steadily decreasing.

The retail price of whiteleg shrimp saw the biggest drop, falling by around 16%.

Pomfret dropped by 12.7%, lemon fish by 11.3%, sea bream by 10%, and large yellow croaker by 5.7%. The price drops for these marine-farmed seafood products were particularly pronounced.

In contrast, the price drop for other freshwater fish was less significant. This was mainly because the drought across the south had caused varying degrees of production cuts at freshwater fish farms, which kept prices from falling.

As for eels, while their prices had also dropped considerably, they were similarly affected by the drought.

Fortunately, the saltwater eel feed that Hailufeng Company had licensed to other mills was already in rapid production and hitting the market.

Eel farmers with coastal farms who got the new feed began pumping seawater directly to replenish their ponds.

As for eel farms in inland regions, they had to figure things out for themselves. After all, their farms weren’t near the coast, so they couldn’t get a supply of virtually free seawater.

Fortunately, there weren’t many inland eel farms, so the overall impact wasn’t too severe.

However, this incident would also make new farmers and companies entering the industry more inclined to establish their eel and marine fish farms in coastal areas, where they wouldn’t have to worry about water supply.

It wasn’t that inland farming was impossible. For example, facilities that used indoor farming methods, coupled with comprehensive internal water circulation systems, could largely withstand the impact of a drought.