Business · Trade · 1 hr ago
Yichang moves sturgeon farming from river cages to indoor facilities
In 2016, China’s Yangtze protection policy ended cage farming in the Qingjiang reservoir area of Yidu, Hubei, affecting 555 sturgeon farmers.
Yidu moved sturgeon farming into indoor facilities and helped former fishers find work in the industry.
More than 500 households in the Qingjiang area have made the transition, including people who now process caviar or manage fish farms.
The new farms use controlled water and digital monitoring to raise sturgeon, and output per volume of water is more than twice that of earlier, less controlled farming.
The Qingjiang’s water quality has remained at Class II or better, while a survey found that four major carp species’ egg production in the Yidu section of the Yangtze rose to 43.5 billion in 2026, from under 200 million in 2011.
Caviar and sturgeon dishes are reaching more consumers through small retail packs, restaurants and tourism businesses.
Yichang aims to become a global sturgeon industry benchmark by 2030, with planned annual output value above 5 billion yuan and caviar production of at least 500 tonnes.
Yichang has shifted sturgeon farming from river cages to indoor, controlled facilities following a 2016 environmental protection policy.
All 555 sturgeon-farming households in the Qingjiang Gaobazhou Reservoir area removed their cages and moved production ashore.
Indoor farms use digital systems to control water conditions and produce 40 kilograms of fish per cubic metre of water, more than twice the former extensive-farming rate.
The transition has also brought former cage farmers into processing and other parts of the sturgeon industry.
Yichang plans to become a global sturgeon industry benchmark city by 2030, with annual output value above 5 billion yuan and caviar production of at least 500 tonnes.
- Who
- Sturgeon farmers and businesses in Yidu, Yichang, Hubei province.
- What
- Sturgeon farming moved from river cages to indoor, controlled facilities.
- When
- The transition followed a 2016 environmental protection policy; the article describes developments over the following decade.
- Where
- Yidu, in Yichang, Hubei province, including the Qingjiang Gaobazhou Reservoir area.
- Why
- To protect the Yangtze River while maintaining the sturgeon industry and supporting former cage farmers.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
The environmental protection policy led all 555 sturgeon-farming households in the Qingjiang Gaobazhou Reservoir area to remove their cages.
Yidu guided the industry toward indoor, standardized farming and linked former farmers to new jobs in the sector.
Yichang plans to become a global sturgeon industry benchmark city, with annual output value above 5 billion yuan and caviar production of at least 500 tonnes.
- Former cage-farming households
- 555 in the Qingjiang Gaobazhou Reservoir area
- Indoor farm output
- 40 kilograms of fish per cubic metre of water
- Digital farm
- More than 1,000 pools and over 1.1 million sturgeon across a 1,650-mu site
- Caviar production target
- At least 500 tonnes a year by 2030
- Industry output value target
- More than 5 billion yuan a year by 2030
What people are saying
The children had to go to school, and there were elderly people at home; most importantly, our source of income was gone.
The water temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH value and feed amount are all on the phone.
This profession is developing rapidly in Yidu, and I think it will get better and better.
In the next five years, we will focus on deep processing, such as peptides and sturgeon biological products.
Sources
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