E. China's Weihai named capital of ready seafood meals, marine seed production

BEIJING, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The coastal city of Weihai, in east China's Shandong Province, has recently been awarded China's capital of ready seafood meals and capital of marine seed industry by China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance (CAPPMA), a national industrial association.

Thanks to abundant natural endowments in marine resources, Weihai has topped the country in sea products output for over three decades, winning great reputation as China's capital of seafood.

In recent years, with blue economy high on its development agenda, the city has made great efforts in advancing industrial chain of pre-made seafood and building regional featured brands of marine seed production.

In terms of ready meals industry with seafood as its core, the city introduced an industrial cluster plan and built three industrial parks and nine characteristic towns, empowering breakthroughs of seven ready meal products, including sea cucumber, oyster, and kelp.

Local pre-made seafood enterprises have been encouraged to become members of China Pre-made Food Alliance, which facilitates pooling resources and sharing information along the industrial chain.

Besides, the local government also issued supporting policies for the industry, which injects impetus to the industrial agglomeration.

Thanks to all these efforts, the number of local pre-made seafood enterprises has exceeded 400, with production capacity of over five million tonnes for more than 1,000 types of products. The products are sold to 89 countries and regions around the world.

As for the marine seed industry, which is seen as the foundation of fishery modernization, the city has mapped out mid- and long-term development and established a world-class, modern marine seed production system involving the industry, enterprises, technology and research.

The city now is home to 25 provincial-level aquatic seed farms, covering 19 major cash species. In addition, the city has joined hands with top research institutes and jointly built several innovation platforms to breed fine varieties. The production value of the marine seed industry has reached 2.93 billion yuan (about 426.4 million U.S. dollars), ranking the first in Shandong Province.

(Edited by Li Shimeng with Xinhua Silk Road, lishimeng@xinhua.org)