So explains Han Han, the driving drive behind the Hainan Tilapia Sustainability Alliance – a commerce physique she established below the auspices of China Blue, the NGO she arrange after leaving the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP). Founded in 2015, it goals to help and enhance the sustainability of the smallholder farmers who account for the overwhelming majority of the island’s tilapia harvests.
Testing instances
While China’s tilapia sector has skilled difficult instances in recent times – the 2019 US-China commerce struggle hitting exports, and the Covid-19 pandemic inflicting all method of logistical issues – the alliance is now going from energy to energy, in line with Han.
“There have been tensions and pressures in the Chinese economy and how we do business is totally different to how it was 2-3 years ago. And Covid-19 initially gave people a fear of seafood. Combined with the closure of restaurants it had a negative impact on demand for tilapia, which led to a reduction in prices,” she displays.
However, she feels that – within the longer-term – the occasions of the previous few years may provide plenty of positives for farmers who’re engaged in additional sustainable aquaculture practices.
“On the positive side for us, the government is taking environmental risks more seriously and Covid-19 rang the bell for people to think more about health and the environment,” she provides.
As a outcome Hainan’s tilapia manufacturing has, in line with Han, remained comparatively steady, regardless of the unsure instances.
“The 2021 statistics aren’t yet available but there are between 2,000 and 3,000 farms on the island and the total production will probably be around 300,000 tonnes. 80 percent of Hainan’s tilapia are produced by smallholders and 90 percent produced in ponds,” explains Han.
“Prices improved in 2021 after a poor year in 2020, thanks to improvements in the export market – in particular to the US. But farmers are still facing challenges – in particular related to climate change and the increase in extreme weather events: with high temperatures and thunderstorms both becoming more frequent, which has increased the occurrence of disease outbreaks, in particular streptococcus,” Han displays.
The Hainan Tilapia Sustainability Alliance
Han was impressed to arrange the HTSA after a go to to Scotland in 2013, during which she met members of the Scottish Salmon Producers Association (SSPO) and realized in regards to the affect of their code of fine apply (COGP).
“When I came back, I worked hard to convince the major players across the tilapia value chain – including farmers, feed companies, service providers and processors – to form an alliance to promote and brand Hainan tilapia,” she remembers.
“And I explained the need to promote best practices – from the hatchery to the processing plant – to ensure good quality fish,” Han provides.
In her function as CEO of China Blue, she has been instrumental within the formation and operating of the HTSA.
“We are close partners and have been working hand-in-hand over the last 6-7 years,” she notes.
While, to Western readers, the formation of such a commerce physique may not appear wildly spectacular, it was very a lot forward of the curve in China.
“The alliance was a very new concept. Most industry associations in China are government-led, but this was a bottom-up approach. It was the first one that really took the initiative to advocate out own desire for increased sustainability,” Han explains.
“As a result, no one had the experience, so we had to learn through trial and error as we tried to engage with local partners, local government imports and exporters. It wasn’t straightforward,” she provides.
Joining the alliance
The alliance now has practically 500 members – accounting for a couple of third of Hainan’s tilapia manufacturing all of whom are anticipated to comply with the physique’s code of fine apply, though Han admits that practices fluctuate between farms.
“In the first 4-5 years, thanks to sponsorship from IDH, we were able to provide more training as well as projects to demonstrate the latest farming techniques and equipment,” says Han.
Since then, coaching provision has been extra piecemeal, says Han, though she has seen plenty of enhancements in farming apply within the seven years for the reason that alliance was based.
“Most farms have increased their aeration, there’s an increase in the use of water quality sensors and a greater degree of data capture, thanks to the work of the alliance,” she explains.
And, in addition to bettering farm efficiency, the rise in knowledge seize has improved the traceability of the provision chain. The alliance helped to arrange a system during which it’s attainable to make use of these knowledge to reward these farmers who’ve adopted the very best practices, by providing them a 20 cent premium on each 500 g of tilapia they promote.
While laudable, this concept has not been as profitable as Han had hoped.
“Buyers and retailers weren’t willing to pay the extra because it’s not attached to a certification scheme. And certification is too complicated for most smallholder farmers, so we have now set up a pilot project to see if data flow can be sufficient across the supply chain [to convince buyers of its credibility],” says Han.
Growth in numbers
Despite such challenges, membership of the alliance has elevated dramatically for the reason that outbreak of the pandemic – particularly after the organisation determined to alter its technique and focus on working with farmers moderately than the downstream finish of the worth chain.
And the generosity proven by members of the alliance through the peak of the pandemic was notable – they made common donations of tilapia to medical staff in Wuhan, in an initiative co-ordinated by the alliance, within the face of extreme logistical difficulties.
“It showed that the alliance could help famers work together and farmers also saw how the alliance could act as their voice,” Han displays.
The credibility of the alliance has not solely elevated with farmers following the pandemic. It has additionally been integral to the availability of presidency insurance coverage payouts to these farmers whose livelihoods had been impacted by Covid-19.
“We have helped insurance agents establish if farmers qualify for government-subsidised insurance payments. Agents don’t know much about tilapia farming, so we’ve been helping them. They have been using the farm gate prices for tilapia that we’ve been publishing as their baseline data,” says Han.
“We are really proud to see how the alliance is playing a role as a professional industry organisation that facilitates information sharing, both within the industry and with outsiders. For this to happen to a bottom-up organisation is a real breakthrough in China,” she emphasises.
“And the government is now using the alliance as a means to pass information on to the farmers and vice versa – we’re a two-way communications channel with the government,” she provides.
This is exceptional in China, the place the federal government tends to depend on massive, usually state-owned firms, not associations of smallholders such because the alliance.
Remaining challenges
Despite the rise is recognition and credibility, Han notes that there’s nonetheless a lot work to be performed and that the alliance now must recruit skilled workers with the requisite skilled abilities to proceed to develop.
There can also be the problem of funding.
“Our membership fees only cover about a quarter of our expenses at the moment, we rely on charities and government grants to cover the remainder,” says Han.
“The alliance is still a bit like a toddler and needs help from China Blue. There’s such a strong government system in China and such a competitive industry system, but something is still missing. Who can take care of the common good ignored by the government and overlooked by industry?” asks Han.
“We see a possibility that our system could work – we’ve taken the first step and learned a valuable lesson, which we’ve shared with other aquaculture producers and associations,” she solutions.
According to Han, it’s an idea that’s gaining recognition from different aquaculture producers – and farmers of species corresponding to carp, yellow croaker and groupers have all approached China Blue to be taught from their expertise of organising the alliance.
“It’s not directly replicable – the key thing is to have the right people in place for the circumstances – but it has opened others’ eyes to what is possible in China, people have been inspired,” displays Han.
Outstanding challenges
Looking forward, Han sees one explicit excellent problem.
“We need to improve our business model – funding is not yet secured and we need to become self-sufficient, which means that we need to prove our value to our members. Profit margins in the tilapia sector are still very thin, so it’s hard to convince companies to pay enough of a membership fee to sustain the alliance,” she says.
But she has hope that the alliance’s strategy will repay for itself and its members quickly – not least because of the Chinese authorities’s latest sustainability drive.
“There’s a strong government commitment to become more green. Previous plans to do this were only on paper, but this time it’s being enforced. It might cause pain for the industry in the short term, but in the long term it is needed to ensure the whole sector becomes more sustainable,” Han displays.
“Overall, the future of China’s aquaculture industry is still very promising – there’s a higher demand for blue foods and we have a long history of eating farmed fish. It’s now question of making aquaculture more efficient and environmentally friendly. Thankfully the government has finally realised the importance of fundamental research and is investing in it heavily,” she concludes.