Shandong Advances Full Salmon Industry Chain with Smart Sea Cages and 150,000-Tonne Aquaculture Vessel, Rizhao Sets RMB 10 Billion Output Target for 2035

Shandong Province is advancing the construction of a complete industry chain centered on salmonid (鲑鳟鱼类) farming. The layout covers land-based smolt hatching and acclimation, marine engineering equipment R&D and manufacturing, deep-sea smart cage farming, industrial processing, and wholesale and sales, with the goal of supplying growing domestic seafood consumption demand under the "Blue Granary" framework.

In the open waters of the Yellow Sea, the main facility "Offshore Granary No. 1" (海上粮仓壹号) uses a column-type, submersible, bottom-settled stable mobile cage structure, with an effective farming water volume of approximately 60,000 cubic meters and an annual salmon production capacity of up to 1,000 tonnes, capable of farming tens of thousands of fish in an optimized marine environment.

The mobile marine ranch model is being advanced in parallel. In May 2026, the 150,000-tonne-class large smart aquaculture vessel "Guoxin 1 2-2" (国信1 2-2), based in Qingdao, harvested approximately 3,000 farmed salmon from its onboard farming tanks, completing a commercial harvest. According to the source, this is the first time a very large mobile aquaculture vessel has achieved large-scale commercial production of salmonids.

From fertilized eggs to market-size fish, from land-based smolt rearing to deep-sea farming, and on to the coordination of equipment manufacturing and cold-chain processing, these elements form part of the technological upgrading of Shandong's modern marine fishery. Rizhao City has issued a dedicated development plan for the full salmon industry chain, setting a target of achieving a total industry chain output value of RMB 10 billion (USD 1.39 billion) by 2035.