Aquaculture tycoon Miao Jiansheng: a guide to making money in the water

Miao Jiansheng, a farmer from Miaozhuang Town, Ninghe County, Tianjin, started out with a small fish pond and now owns a modern aquaculture park with more than 3,000 mu of breeding water surface. He painstakingly studied breeding techniques and led more than 370 farmers onto the path of aquaculture, helping them realize their dream of prosperity, and is hailed by people as the "Aquaculture Tycoon."

Walking into Tianxiang Aquatic Products Co., Ltd. in Miaozhuang Town, Ninghe County, one sees a garden-style factory area and a rationally laid-out aquaculture training center. The broad breeding water surface ripples with shimmering light; under the feeders fish leap and shrimp jump, and the clusters of splashing water stirred up by the aerators add motion and vitality to thousands of mu of water surface.

It is understood that this company has a fry breeding workshop with a capacity of 10 trillion fry, a workshop for extruded feed for fish and shrimp with a capacity of 100,000 tons, an annual output of more than 4,000 tons of freshwater fish and shrimp, and total revenue that has broken through the 150 million yuan mark.

Company general manager Miao Jiansheng said that, like many entrepreneurs, behind his success there is also a little-known story.

"To be frank, at the beginning fish farming all followed the traditional way of releasing fry in early spring and harvesting fish after autumn, and it did not make money. Why did it not make money? Because after autumn everyone harvested all their fish at the same time, and the price was especially low."

In 1995, as the market kept changing, the once-popular carp gradually fell out of favor. At this time Miao Jiansheng began thinking about how to change the farming model, both to shorten the farming cycle and to exploit the time gap, rather than rushing onto the market all at once. After nearly a year of hard work, Miao Jiansheng, growing braver with each setback, finally welcomed a spring of harvest, which allowed him to earn his first pot of gold in the aquaculture industry.

"Later we raised large-size fry and harvested fish at Duanwu (the Dragon Boat Festival). At that time the price was relatively good. Turning from ordinary traditional thinking to large-size fish farming, by the time it came to harvesting large-pot carp, our returns were considered decent too."

To make one's way in the unpredictable aquaculture industry requires both advanced technology and carries the risk of capsizing. It was in precisely such an environment that Miao Jiansheng introduced many new species such as American perch and brought "foreign fish species" into his own ponds. "For example, now there is river perch, American largemouth bass, the steamed perch served in restaurants, and also that cod. They sell well in our market here; their scales are especially white and especially beautiful."

Meng Fanmin, a farmer from Dashawu Village, Miaozhuang Town, Ninghe County, joined the Qunying Aquaculture Cooperative in 2007. With Miao Jiansheng's financial support and technical guidance, he changed his farming management model and introduced new species such as silver snow fish and channel catfish, ending the days of "fighting alone" and, together with the cooperative's members, "banding together" to farm and prosper.

Meng Fanmin said: "In the past you could say we fought scattered battles on our own, understanding nothing about technology, sales, and all aspects. When the fish-selling season came, the traders sometimes even pressured the price down, and the returns were sluggish. Since joining the Tianxiang Qunying Association (cooperative), we farmers have had a certain guarantee. We no longer have to worry about breeding varieties, technology, feed, or sales."

Villager Miao Jianqiang, who has been paraplegic from a young age, contracted a pond in the village in 1996 and began raising fish. Problems came one after another: first fry, technology, and feed, then sales. Since joining the cooperative, Miao Jianqiang has regained his confidence and achieved returns. "I am a disabled person myself, and there is a lot I cannot do on my own. Now, relying on the Qunying Cooperative, the fry given to me are the best, and the price is quite favorable. When selling fish outside, we do not have to negotiate the price ourselves, and the price is a bit higher than others."

Who could have imagined that Miao Jiansheng, who had only studied through the third grade of primary school, would become an intimate friend of experts and professors from Tianjin Agricultural University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences; and who could have imagined that an ordinary aquatic enterprise would undertake major national science and technology projects such as 973 and 863.

Miao Jiansheng said: "We have now won four third prizes for Tianjin Municipal Science and Technology Progress Awards. Over the years we have undertaken more than 40 national-level projects and Tianjin municipal science and technology projects, including the earliest 863 United Nations project, and now the Golden Agriculture Award issued by the Agriculture Committee."

Now Miao Jiansheng puts his main energy into developing new varieties and has successively introduced more than ten famous and superior varieties such as German mirror carp and American calico bass. The farmers who joined the aquaculture cooperative have fuller wallets, and the level of aquaculture has risen accordingly. Miao Jiansheng said: "For the future development of fisheries, this cooperative actually plays a very important role. It (lets) ordinary people still make money, and the quality of the fish still has to pass muster. Only then can this industry develop sustainably."

In 2003, Tianxiang Company and Tianjin Agricultural University established an industry-university-research consortium. Under Miao Jiansheng's leadership, Tianxiang Company created the country's first recirculating water ecological aquaculture system; innovated long-distance live transport technology for Wuchang fish; and won four municipal science and technology progress awards and eight national invention patent awards. In 2014, with the approval of the Municipal Science and Technology Commission, the company also set up an "Academician and Expert Workstation."

Miao Jiansheng said: "Because we introduced many scientific and technological talents, we then cooperated with some universities and colleges, major institutes, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, fully absorbing the most high-end technology and appeal of modern Chinese fisheries."

From raising popular carp and scarce Wuchang fish, to German mirror carp and American largemouth bass, Miao Jiansheng has gone from an ordinary fish farmer to a "guide" in aquaculture technology. He said proudly: "Some of our new varieties mainly go to the south, while the old varieties mainly go to the three northeastern provinces and the five northwestern provinces. Now we sell to more than 50 cities, and we have almost the whole national market, because we ship part by air and part by truck, and now the trucks are all the fully automated, self-refrigerating kind."

In 2007, Tianxiang Company established an aquaculture cooperative - the Tianjin Qunying Aquaculture Cooperative - focusing on promoting the specialized and industrialized development of local aquaculture.

Miao Jiansheng said: "The role the Qunying Aquaculture Cooperative really plays is that everyone participates in management, and we unify the brand and unify quality. This also raises the degree of trust toward us from the merchants who cooperate with us outside."

Brief introduction to Miao Jiansheng

Miao Jiansheng, 49 years old this year, is a native of Dashawu Village, Miaozhuang Town, Ninghe County. In March 1987, he formally stepped into the aquaculture industry from being an ordinary farm child. From a small pond with only a few dozen mu of water surface to now owning a modern aquaculture park with more than 3,000 mu of breeding water surface, and from a "greenhorn" who understood neither technology, science, nor management to now being hailed by people as the "Aquaculture Tycoon," he has successively been rated with many honorable titles such as "National Spark Science and Technology Wealth-Building Able Person," "National Top Ten Outstanding Young Farmers," "National Model Worker," "Tianjin Municipal Model Worker," "Tianjin Municipal People's Congress Representative," and "Tianjin May Fourth Youth Medal Winner."

Miao Jiansheng, general manager of Tianxiang Aquatic Products Co., Ltd., which has hundreds of millions in fixed assets and creates annual revenue of 150 million yuan, did not forget his fellow villagers after getting rich himself. In 2007 he took the lead in the city in establishing the Qunying Aquaculture Professional Cooperative, leading more than 370 farmers onto the path of aquaculture, letting scattered farmers join the aquaculture cooperative and, together with everyone, "band together" for warmth and common prosperity. He is the guide for farmers "making money in the water" - Miao Jiansheng.