Global joint venture project
Heshan rural project in Guangdong, China
Overview
The goal and scope of this project is vastly different to that for Ozpure Agritech, which began, first and foremost, as a proof of concept initiative. Instead, our project in Heshan is designed to be a full-scale facility complete with outdoor ponds and indoor recirculating aquaculture systems.
In early 2017, our second global project arose directly out of the continuing success of our first foreign joint venture, Ozpure Agritech. In addition to proposed facility, we will be pursuing a dual production line which incorporates a large-scale open pond cage culture to complement the recirculating aquaculture systems that will be installed. The local stakeholders of Ozpure Agritech are also directly involved in this project, together with a number of new investors. We believe that the location has all the necessary qualities to eventually breed Murray cod larvae onsite.
Involvement
This project is located in the Heshan region of China’s Guangdong province – which, like the district of Jiujiang, is another major hub for aquaculture in China that is of national significance. A tranquil, rural area of hills, forests and mountain streams, the Heshan region is renowned for its natural beauty and extensive history in freshwater aquaculture. Furthermore, the area is connected by highway and rail to the other major centres in the province.
Preparation, design and construction work on the site commenced in early 2017. Overall, the project is scheduled to be operational by early 2018, with the first harvest anticipated to be market-ready by late 2018 or early 2019. As with Ozpure Agritech, Uarah Fisheries will be responsible for technical direction, training and management, while the local stakeholders will conduct the sales and marketing aspect of operations.
In this project, we will also be exploring open pond cage culture as an alternative to recirculating aquaculture for Murray cod farming overseas. While there are additional infrastructure and practices that will need to be employed to treat the wastewater, open-pond cage culture requires less upfront costs and time to set up.
However, for this project specifically, not only were we able to secure high-quality surface water and sufficient land area, we also recognised that the local labour force was already considerably experienced in open pond cage culture – a unique resource to this region.
Whether open-pond cage culture or recirculating aquaculture is more suitable will also depend on considerations of climate, environmental sustainability, financial cost, and quality and availability of skilled labour, land and water resources. However, with the tools that modern aquaculture has at its disposal, we believe that Murray cod aquaculture can thrive and be financially successful almost anywhere – whether urban or rural, wet or dry, hot or cold.
Overall, we are highly-anticipating the completion of construction work and the formal commencement of operations in this project. To our knowledge, together with Ozpure Agritech, these two projects constitute the first major step by Australian farmers to showcase major-scale modern Murray cod farming, and Murray cod as a serious aquaculture species overseas.