Taiwan Red Fish Returns to Glory, Poised to Re-enter Taiwan Channels

Since the family moved south from Taipei in the 54th year of the Republic of China (1965) and settled in Xinpi Township, Pingtung to engage in aquaculture, the two brothers Zhang Jinhao and Zhang Jinjia (Zhang Jianfeng) of the Taiwan Red Fish Workshop have inherited their father's business and raised red Nile tilapia for more than 40 years. In the early days, all of it was for export, reaching as far as Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, the Philippines in Southeast Asia, the United States, the mainland and other places, circling the globe once. In recent years, they still felt that since this fish is so high quality, why not sell it to Taiwanese people themselves to eat, and decided to re-develop the Taiwan market.

The two brothers Zhang Jinhao and Zhang Jinjia boasted that Taiwan Red Fish (Daqian Fish) has delicate and firm flesh, is rich in collagen and low in cholesterol, and that the texture of its sashimi is between abalone and lobster, with a short farming cycle and high efficiency. In fact, it is very suitable as banquet cuisine and for entering every family's kitchen. They emphasized that in the farming process they insist even more on not using chemical agents, and have obtained certification as an agricultural product with a production and sales traceability record from the Council of Agriculture, and were once honored as one of Taiwan's Top Ten Outstanding Fishermen.

The Zhang brothers call the red fish they produce "Daqian Fish," because the late master of traditional Chinese painting Zhang Daqian once endorsed it: "Deliciousness brings forth flavor upon flavor; even bear paw may be forsaken for it." This is describing how Taiwan Red Fish has fresh, sweet, springy flesh. The Zhang brothers created an original castle-style food chain farming method, constructed with octagonal ponds. Leftover bait and fish feces are discharged by gravity into a large purification circulating pond to cultivate feed organisms, and then sent back to the octagonal ponds to raise fish. The pond water maintains a certain flow rate, and every fish is exercising every day, so no wonder its flesh is firm and springy; and the subsurface flow water from the foot of Taiwu Mountain is cold, clear and sweet, nurturing the fresh, sweet deliciousness of the flesh.

In early September, the Pingtung County Government had just joined with the Hsinchu City Government to promote fish and agricultural specialties farmed in Pingtung at the Mama Fish Wild Seafood Supermarket store in Hsinchu. This supermarket was founded by Chairman Wang Weixu of Tianhong Technology Group to sell fish caught by his family's fishing boats. Originally it only sold wild-caught fishery products, with nearly 20 stores in central and northern Taiwan. This year it began cooperating with the Pingtung County Government to sell high-quality farmed fish and agricultural specialties from Pingtung. When Chairman Wang Weixu heard that there was this unique Taiwan Red Fish, he specially went in person to the fish farm to understand the production process. Seeing such an excellent production environment and process, regarding the future marketing of Taiwan Red Fish, he made a bold statement that it would absolutely sell well.