Xinfengxiang Facility Fishery, a 13-year RAS technology project, has been implemented in Zhongshan, Guangdong to build a smart aquaculture farm.

2026 is regarded by the industry as a critical node for the implementation and penetration of AI technology, and also a reshuffling year for China's domestic aquaculture industry. At present, 99% of the domestic aquaculture production capacity still adopts the old outdoor pond model that has been used for decades. Even with upgraded equipment and management measures, the industry has long been plagued by extreme weather attacks and large supply-demand fluctuations, with weak overall risk resistance capacity. The smart fishery project of Aoyuan Agriculture in Zhongshan is launched precisely targeting this industry pain point. Relying on the team's 13-year accumulated experience in RAS recirculating aquaculture technology, the project aims to solve the long-standing core demands of the industry, including sharp price fluctuations of aquatic products, reduced aquaculture survival rate caused by extreme weather, and difficulty in matching small-batch customized aquaculture demands. Taking indoor recirculating aquaculture as the first entry point for intelligent fishery implementation, it builds a benchmark new facility fishery project with stable production, stable price and stable profit.

Among the core team members of the project, Huang Zhongkang, the general manager, once participated in leading the technology industrialization projects of two teams from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to land in the Greater Bay Area, and has mature experience in technology transformation and industrial operation. Liao Shuwei, the core technical personnel, has years of practical experience in building RAS aquaculture systems and is fully responsible for the design of the entire recirculating aquaculture system and daily aquaculture operation. The founder has been rooted in the RAS recirculating aquaculture field since 2013, and has accumulated more than ten years of front-line technology and operation experience. So far, the project has reached a consensus with the local government of Fusha, Zhongshan on land use and support, obtained official recognition from the competent agricultural department of Zhongshan Municipality, and signed a customized aquaculture sales contract with Guangdong He's Aquatic Products, opening up the core sales channel for the first batch of products. Fusha Town plans to deliver 50 mu of agricultural facility land to the project in the first phase, and deliver a total of 150 mu within three years with a land use term of 15 years, which removes the core land resource obstacle for the large-scale implementation of the project.

The project adopts a phased and progressive development path: first, it sets up a model workshop to complete the verification of the technical route and profit model, then steadily promotes large-scale capacity expansion, and finally opens up the Hong Kong and Macao markets to realize brand premium. The first phase plans to invest 3 million yuan to complete the construction of the model RAS workshop, of which 1.63 million yuan is used for the construction and equipment investment of multi-span greenhouses, office warehouses, aquaculture systems and other facilities, and the remaining 1.37 million yuan is used as working capital. After completion, it can achieve an annual output of 150,000 to 200,000 jin of bass, with an estimated annual output value ranging from 1.65 million yuan to 2.6 million yuan, and the capital can be recovered quickly with an aquaculture cycle of only 6 months. Relying on the mature accumulated RAS recirculating aquaculture technology, the project can realize fully environmentally controlled indoor aquaculture, completely get rid of the interference of extreme weather on the aquaculture process. In the later stage, by adding photovoltaic power generation on the top of the greenhouse to reduce electricity cost and integrating upstream feed and fry resources to compress raw material cost, the overall aquaculture cost can be controlled at the same level or even lower than that of traditional outdoor pond aquaculture, breaking the business dilemma of traditional aquaculture that fluctuates greatly with the price cycle.

From the perspective of industry development, the national level has made advance layout in the green fishery and RAS recirculating aquaculture track, and the policy dividends of facility fishery continue to be released. Relying on its cost advantage, the project can quickly seize the market share after the exit of traditional outdoor pond aquaculture. Later, with the product quality positioning of no antibiotics and no parasites, it can rely on the geographical advantage of being close to Hong Kong and Macao to open up the high-end aquatic product market and form a differentiated brand premium space. The medium-term plan of the project in 3-5 years is to expand the aquaculture scale to 10,000 ㎡ of RAS aquaculture workshop, realize an annual output of 2 million jin of bass, and reach the medium-scale level of the industry. After completing the asset right confirmation in the first phase, the project can leverage the subsequent capacity expansion funds by applying for special bank agricultural financing, applying for national green cycle development project subsidies, and jointly applying for special bonds with government platforms to establish a joint venture fishery company. After completing the layout of the 200-mu base in the long term, it can realize an aquaculture area of 50,000 ㎡, a photovoltaic power generation greenhouse top coverage of 20,000 ㎡, an overall annual output of 6 million jin, and an estimated annual output value of about 70 million yuan.

The project is currently promoting angel round financing, with a planned financing amount of 3 million yuan and 15% equity to be transferred. A 4-year equity lock-up period is set with a guaranteed repurchase mechanism, in which 5% of the equity can be actively repurchased by the project party at an annualized simple interest rate of 8% within 4 years, and the remaining 10% of the equity can be repurchased at an annualized simple interest rate of 13% with the consent of the investor, which fully protects the rights and interests of investors. As the partner that has obtained the first large-volume customized aquaculture order, the relevant person in charge of Guangdong He's Aquatic Products said that Aoyuan's controllable aquaculture model can stably output aquatic products with uniform quality, which fully matches their long-term demand for stable supply of goods, and solves the long-standing pain points of large quality fluctuation of supplied goods and unstable arrival time in previous outdoor pond procurement. Huang Zhongkang said frankly that the team has accumulated RAS technology for more than ten years, and finally waited for the node when both industry policies and market demands are mature. This time, landing in Fusha, Zhongshan is to turn the technology that has been precipitated for many years into real industrial value, and explore a replicable and mature path for the intelligent implementation of facility fishery.