Thanks to branding and small-size packaging, frozen grouper products have found their way to high-end department stores.
Now we switch focus to Lijia Green Energy Biotechnology Company, based in Linbian Township, Pingtung County, Taiwan. A family business run by Chen Jia-de and his three children, its operation ranges from fish brooding, nursing, breeding to processing and marketing. It is rarely seen in Taiwan that a single company covers both the production and the marketing processes. Last year, Lijia received an annual revenue of over NT$100 million.
In 2009, Typhoon Morakot left great devastation in its wake. Mr. Chens’s three children, who had been working or studying in other parts of the country, came home to rebuild family business. They developed patented devices and promoted scientific management, thus improving product quality and turning a crisis into an opportunity. Bold and radical changes were made in the fish-farming industry. People’s preconception of grouper fish as fresh and lively seafood was challenged. And a new outlet for frozen fish products was finally opened up.
“Grouper fish farming is difficult business, and the key issue here is the breeding rate,” said Zheng An-cang, associate professor at National Kaohsiung Marine University. His words point directly to the core of the problem. According to Professor Zheng, the breeding rate of grouper fish is around 50 to 70 percent. And with a breeding rate of only 50 percent, grouper fish farmers are liable to losses. Moreover, the industry is vulnerable to weather conditions, so business success depends as much on management skills as on fish farming techniques.
The major difficulty with grouper fish farming lies in increasing dissolved oxygen in the fish pond, thereby providing grouper fish, a benthic species, with sufficient oxygen and improving the survival rate. Chen Jian-han, Mr. Chen’s second son, came home to follow in his father’s footsteps. He majored in biotechnology and is now 30 years of age. In two years, he worked with a Japanese company to develop a fish pond device called “Cycle” to increase dissolved oxygen, and this “secret weapon” brought Mr. Chen’s fish farm back to life.
This piece of machinery, with the appearance of a ceiling fan, sticks closely to the pond and churns up the surface, allowing the water at the bottom to rush upward like a fountain and setting in motion the interchange between the water in the top layer and in the bottom layer. In this way, not only is the dissolved oxygen increased, but the issue of wastes accumulating at the bottom of the pond is also solved. So, in conjunction with the use of probiotics to break down water quality pollutants, “Cycle” helps to maintain the ecosystem of the fish pond in its best condition.
“Although costing five times as much as a conventional waterwheel, it is four times more energy efficient than traditional fish farming, using an ecological engineering method to generate solar power,” said Mr. Chen. “Cycle” not only is patented in six countries, including Taiwan and Thailand, but also received the 2012 Agribusiness Science & Technology Innovation Award.
Under the protection of such a “secret weapon,” fish are less susceptible to illness and there is less need for drug administration. The breeding rate surges to over 90 percent, much more than the average 50 percent. And the Feed Conversion Rate（the ratio of the amount of feed consumed to the amount of weight increased）is 66 percent higher than average. “For each kilogram of feed consumed, our fish put on one kilogram of weight,” said Chen Jian-han.
Chen Jian-yu, Mr. Chen’s eldest son, is mainly in charge of fish trade with mainland China fishermen. Three years ago, he noticed that people in Mainland China came to prefer dragon-tiger striped fish over green groupers but that Taiwanese fishermen were still looking on. So, before everyone else, he began breeding dragon-tiger striped fish instead. Now, green groupers constitute less than 50 percent of the entire fish breed, which means he practically dodged the recent price fall of green groupers.
As for Chen Yi-ru, Mr. Chen’s youngest daughter, she started thinking about marketing and product outlets. “Under the government’s promotion, the volume of fish bred doubles, but not the price,” she said. Seeing the prices of grouper fish plummeted and selling fresh fish became unprofitable, the Chen family decided to turn to frozen processed products.
Grouper fish, within an hour of leaving the water, are iced, blood-let, scaled, bowelled, and sorted. Then, with the same high standard as tuna packaging, they are rapidly frozen down to -60°C and vacuum packaged. The Chens launched a brand called “Lively Fish One”, and engaged Chen Young-ji, who had won a Red dot design award, to design the brand logo and product packaging, so as to turn their quality fish into a refined commodity.
“With frozen products, we get to adjust the volume and prices of grouper fish in busy and slow seasons, which in effect increases added values,” said Chen Yi-ru. Over the last five years, new outlets have gradually been opened up, and king groupers, dragon-tiger striped fish, and green groupers, either in whole or sliced form, have found their way to five star hotels like W Hotel and high-end supermarkets in Sogo and Breeze Center. Now, domestic sales account for over 90 percent of the total sales, bringing in an annual revenue of NT$30 million.
These fishermen, in average less than 35 years of age, represent a new generation. In a depressing market, they built a new model that brought together production and marketing, redefining what grouper fish means for the public. With love to their hometowns and to grouper fish, they dare to break the rigid conventions of business outlets and marketing, and found their own way ahead.
[By Sharon Lin / tr. by Meng-tsung Hsieh]