Autumn Typhoon "Capricorn" Hit Aquaculture Industry, Mid-Autumn Festival Supply Challenges

As the Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, the domestic aquatic products market should usher in the annual sales season, however, this year has encountered unprecedented challenges.  The raging of the super strong autumn typhoon "Capricorn" not only brought a heavy blow to the aquaculture industry in Hainan, Guangdong and other places, but also aggravated the shortage of aquatic products in the domestic market, especially the price of 3040-specification white shrimp, which continued to rise, and the contradiction between supply and demand in the market became increasingly prominent. 

Typhoon "Capricorn" with its powerful destructive power, swept across Hainan, Guangdong and other important aquaculture areas in China, bringing heavy losses to the local aquaculture industry.  According to Wang Ping, president of Hainan Province Shrimp Breeding Association, when the typhoon landed on Wengtian, Wenchang, it not only caused serious disastrous weather, but also directly led to huge losses in local shrimp breeding farms.  The seedling workshop and precious shrimp breeding resources have been almost destroyed. The loss of shrimp breeding in each seedling farm is as high as 500,000 to 1 million yuan, and some seedling farms even reach the amazing figure of 3 million to 3.5 million yuan.  The high cost of shrimp breeding, coupled with the huge capital needs for post-disaster reconstruction, is undoubtedly worse for the already fragile aquaculture industry. 

In addition to shrimp farming, other aquaculture species such as golden pomfret, rachycentron canadum, grouper, blue carp and tilapia are not immune.  The cage culture area suffered heavy losses in the typhoon, and a large number of cultured products escaped or died, which brought huge economic losses to farmers.  Many farmers say the typhoon has left them with almost nothing and will face great difficulties in rebuilding and resuming production. 

Fortunately, after landing in Xuwen, Guangdong Province, the typhoon did not continue to spread to the coastal areas of Guangxi and western Guangdong, thus avoiding further losses of white shrimp farming in these areas.  However, the storm and heavy rainfall caused by typhoon may still cause certain hidden dangers and subsequent injuries to the local aquaculture industry, which requires relevant departments and farmers to be highly vigilant. 

More pressing, however, is the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival market.  The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional reunion festival for Chinese people, and it is also the peak period of consumption of aquatic products.  However, affected by typhoon, the supply of domestic live shrimp and other aquatic products has been greatly reduced, which is difficult to meet the market demand.  This has led to increased sourcing and stocking of substitutes such as frozen shrimp in response to peak sales during the holiday season.  However, it is still unknown whether the supply and quality of frozen shrimp can meet the market demand.