Suzhou rice field eel prices decline after National Day, farmers not very enthusiastic about selling

Every year during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day period, the prices of rice field eels and loaches on the aquaculture market rise, and farmers are quite enthusiastic about selling their fish. Since the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day are usually very close together, this year farmers began closely watching the market about a week before the Mid-Autumn Festival. When prices rose noticeably, they would sell a batch of rice field eels. This allowed them to recover some costs first, and secondly, the rice field eels had been raised in cages for some time, so the density had increased. Selling part of the rice field eels from the cages, then dividing them into different cages, reduced the stocking density somewhat and lowered the disease rate of the rice field eels.

Data from the China Aquaculture Network rice field eel market express shows that on October 18, at the Suzhou Nanhuanqiao aquatic products market, the wholesale price of small-sized rice field eels under 1 liang was about 25 yuan/jin, the price of 1-1.8 liang rice field eels was slightly higher at 26 yuan/jin, while the price of large-sized rice field eels above 1.8 liang was 30.5-31 yuan/jin. According to wholesalers, rice field eel prices during this period have indeed dropped somewhat compared with the National Day period, and sales volume has also decreased. “Right now, the rice field eels on the Suzhou market are mainly farmed goods from Hubei, and wild-caught goods are basically gone.”

And from the Hubei and Hunan area it was learned that due to the recent obvious drop in temperature, rice field eel diseases have increased somewhat. “When the temperature drops sharply, and with the current large temperature difference between day and night, rice field eels are prone to disease. If the rice field eels cannot be sold, farmers use medication to control the disease. If there is no improvement, they will sell them directly. The longer the disease lasts, the greater the loss, and in the end it is very likely that an entire cage of rice field eels will be a total loss.” After getting through this period of temperature drop, healthy rice field eels will enter another period of rapid growth. At this time, farmers will increase feeding to let the rice field eels gain weight quickly. “So unless disease occurs, farmers generally will not sell fish easily during this month or so after National Day.”