Known as the hometown of the Golden Pomfret fish in China, Zhanjiang of Guangdong province has utilized this asset to develop its aquaculture and thus boost rural vitalization.

Local official data showed the annual production of Golden Pomfret in Zhanjiang is 100,000 metric tons, accounting for about 40 percent of the country's total. The total output value of this sector is worth nearly 10 billion yuan. About 100,000 employees are engaged across the industrial chain including fry, feed, aquaculture equipment, processing and distribution. And this, in turn, has created about 1 million other job opportunities.

The Golden Pomfret industry has become a force for Zhanjiang to modernize agriculture and achieve rural vitalization, local officials said.

Mo Zhigui, head of the agriculture and rural affairs bureau of Zhanjiang, called for the innovative development of the Golden Pomfret industry, ensuring the quality of fry and aquaculture practices on the basis of the whole industrial chain.

Efforts should be made to enhance the value of the Golden Pomfret industry through processing and sales of premade dishes, Mo said. Using the business pattern of premade dishes can accelerate the process of marketization, digitization and internationalization of this industry, he added.

Zhanjiang cashes in on Golden Pomfret for its rural vitalization efforts. ZHANG FENGFENG/FOR CHINA DAILY

In 2022, the Zhanjiang city government issued a guideline on promoting the high-quality development of the premade dishes industry. It detailed measures including building industrial parks; cultivating business entities; supporting technological innovation; regulating product quality and safety; upgrading equipment; promoting marketing and sales and improving the cold-chain logistics system.

The guideline aims to develop the brand of Zhanjiang's premade dishes and build up the city as a center of such an industry. It plans to do this by giving full play to its advantages in seafood production and the transformation and upgrading of foreign trade.

In addition to the burgeoning development of aquaculture, Zhanjiang has seen progress in rice farming and the fruit industry in recent years.

Capitalizing on its agricultural resources, Zhanjiang has stepped up efforts to establish a modern rural industrial system and develop agricultural product processing industries.

The city has built nine processing industrial chains. They are: tropical fruits and vegetables; aquatic products; livestock products; premade dishes; grains; oilseeds; sugarcane and sugar; feed; and medicinal materials grown in South China. As such, it is embarking on a model of rural vitalization featuring Zhanjiang's characteristics and promoting rural development on the Chinese path to modernization.

In 2022, Zhanjiang created 10 farmers' cooperatives at provincial level, four demonstration family farms and four provincial-level industrial parks. It has three towns selected as nationally important in terms of agricultural development and 13 products listed in the nation's category of famous agricultural brands.

This year, Zhanjiang will build a new large-scale intelligent deep-sea aquaculture platform and more than 230 large deep-water net cages, as part of its effort to build itself into a strong agricultural hub, according to the city plan. The city also plans to apply for the construction of a national-level marine ranch demonstration zone. There it will host artificial fish reefs and develop the manufacturing industry of modern marine ranching equipment.