As October began, tilapia farming in Hainan province started its autumn fry stocking. Owing to weather factors early this year, overall farming period was postponed. However, fish price was relatively ideal this year. It’s expected that peak period of stocking tilapia fry would be on the way after Chinese National Day.
In March and April this year, whole southern China was hit by rainy and cold weather, which damaged the tilapia fry production in fry farms. As a result, fry stocking in tilapia farming farms in Hainan province was also affected accordingly. According to industry insiders, the overall farming period would be put off 15-20 days this year. Besides, hot weather prevailed during July and August and farmers all controlled their feeding amount, which further stalled the culture cycle.
It’s known that many tilapia farmers lost their farming enthusiasm after the rare tilapia industry recession in 2015, especially in Pearl River Delta, Guangdong. On the other hand, consumption choices in this region varied in a large range with large demand. Many fishes’ price kept high in a long term, such as channel catfish (Ictalurus Punctatus), crucian and so on. As a result, market share of tilapia fry produced in Hainan province expanded a lot this year.
Different from many other farming regions in Southern China and owing to specialty of consumption market, freshwater farmers in Hainan province had to choose culture of tilapia. Farmers chose to not feed the fish when marketing was extremely low last year. So fish grew slowly and fry sales was also not ideal. Recently, there has been many sources stating that weather would become exceedingly cold this winter. Many farmers, therefore, estimated that the tilapia marketing would be profitable in the first half of next year, and, somehow, the autumn fry demand would also enlarge. Some industry insiders even estimated that tilapia fry market demand would further increase after this winter in consideration of the drop of farming quantity in Guangdong province and the positive market outlook in the first half of next year.
