A-Lin-Shih creates his own non-toxic aquaculture sales platform, inspiring more than a dozen young people to return to their hometowns

Around the Haipu settlement in Hunei District, Kaohsiung City, the area used to be reclaimed land. Agricultural irrigation water has been available since the Japanese colonial period. Although these lands were originally registered for farmland use, A-Lin-Shih said that because they are close to the sea, the soil itself has a relatively high salt content. In addition, after the 1950s, because Taiwan's economy took off, rural labor gradually flowed out, and food exports were blocked, causing overproduction of crops, so these lands gradually all turned into fish ponds.

Similarly, because the Haipu area is close to the sea, the groundwater is salty, so A-Lin-Shih and the members of his production and marketing group mainly use irrigation water, mixing in only 1/20 to 1/30 groundwater. A-Lin-Shih said that if irrigation water alone were used, the fish that could be raised would be limited to freshwater fish, such as tilapia and mosquitofish, with relatively low output value. Once a small amount of salty groundwater is added, it becomes possible to raise milkfish, sea bass and other aquatic products with greater economic value.

Middlemen's Unfair Exploitation Led Him to Create His Own Platform

In order to get more people to join in raising non-toxic aquatic products, more than three years ago A-Lin-Shih founded the production and marketing group, attracting more than a dozen young people with an average age of over 30, with a total aquaculture area of 10 hectares. At present, the group's products are becoming increasingly diverse, including white shrimp, milkfish, sea bass, handmade milkfish floss, and swordfish fish balls.

A-Lin-Shih said that because the soil beneath the fish ponds also needs to rest and recover, they usually raise aquatic products for only more than 9 months a year. The remaining period of nearly 3 months is used for drying the ponds, turning the soil, and so on, to let the soil recover and replenish trace elements. The diversity of the group's products is exactly what keeps this supply chain from stalling.

In recent years, whether crops or aquaculture, output has declined year by year. A-Lin-Shih said that a food crisis can happen at any time. During the financial crisis five or six years ago, because aquaculture needs feed, A-Lin-Shih personally experienced imported corn rising from 4 yuan per jin to 8.5 yuan. He deeply realized that if Taiwan does not produce enough food itself, the prices of raw materials will be controlled by other countries. Once agriculture and fishery can no longer be passed down, how can it be guaranteed that Taiwanese people will always have something to eat?

A-Lin-Shih believes that with the unemployment rate so high now, if the government could plan the demand for each crop and guide young people to grow crops on fallow land, letting young people see the future hope of Taiwan's agriculture, it is not that no one really wants to work in agriculture and fishery. His current goal is to find a way to let the brand and sales platform develop steadily. As long as young people can see hope in non-toxic aquaculture and fishery, there is no fear that no one will be willing to do it.