Breakthrough in Mass Production Technology for Sea Grapes in Offshore Aquaculture: County Magistrate Chen Kuang-fu Visits Site to Learn More

The seawater in Penghu is clean and pollution-free, making it highly suitable for the growth environment of sea grapes. The Penghu County Agriculture and Fisheries Bureau, in cooperation with Penghu University of Science and Technology, conducted a "Sea Grape Large-Scale Mass Production Experiment" in the Penghu inner sea, and has reached the stage of large-scale mass production. On the afternoon of the 27th, County Magistrate Chen Kuang-fu personally led local aquaculture operators on a site visit. Seeing the plump, round clusters of sea grapes, County Magistrate Chen Kuang-fu praised them highly and expressed his hope to build Penghu into an industry of land-based ice plant and sea-based sea grapes, creating new momentum for Penghu's economic development.

Sea grapes have high economic value. According to scientific research, sea grapes have anti-cancer, blood pressure-lowering and beauty-enhancing effects, and can be developed into beauty and skincare products for women, with great economic output value. To this end, the Penghu County Agriculture and Fisheries Bureau, with strong support from the Fisheries Agency, cooperated with Penghu University of Science and Technology this year to conduct a "Sea Grape Large-Scale Mass Production Experiment" in the Penghu inner sea. At present, it has initially reached the stage of scalable production, and the cultivated algae can also produce plump, abundant fruit spheres, breaking through the previous predicament of insufficient fruit sphere yield after sea grape cultivation, and is expected to increase aquaculture operators' willingness to cultivate and increase market purchasing willingness.

This experimental cultivation used box-net aquaculture. One box net with an average area can produce at least 500 kg or more of algae in 1.5 months. Given Penghu's hot summer and autumn weather lasting at least 6 months, one unit area can produce at least 2,000 kg of algae per production season. With sea grapes sold in Okinawa priced at around 1,500 yuan per kg, if aquaculture operators can sell at around 400-500 yuan per kg, in addition to increasing fishermen's income, it would also be highly competitive in the market.