The port city of Zhanjiang in western Guangdong province has laid detailed plans to become an oceanic powerhouse.

Its administrators envision that sea-related output will hit 180 billion yuan ($29.27 billion) a year by 2015, some 32 percent of the city's GDP and more than double the 85.48 billion yuan recorded in 2010. The figure was 130.84 billion yuan last year, up 12.6 percent from 2012.

Local authorities want the ocean industry to become an economic pillar as Zhanjiang becomes "a model city in ocean economic development in the country in the following years".

The city has a coastline of 2023.6 kilometers and an ocean area of more than 20,000 square kilometers.

It is already a major production and trading center for prawns and tilapia fish.

Zhanjiang's prawn harvest hit 159,100 tons in 2013, 21 percent of the country's total, earning the city $634 million in export revenue.

To further expand prawn exports the local government will further upgrade its aquatic cultivation and ensure only quality products are sold abroad in the future, said planners.

Local authorities have promised to introduce more preferential policies to support the city's aquatic product industries to help them build brand names.

All the prawn farms in the city have also been urged to further improve their technologies and equipment to ensure the quality of exports.

Zhanjiang will establish a special expert group to help monitor the quality of the prawns and other aquatic products sold abroad and help handle any disputes involving Zhanjiang's prawn cultivation and trade, authorities said.

Last year, the city was assigned the role of national base for transformation of the aquatic product industry.

Its more than 69,350 hectares of prawn farms is the largest area in the country.

The city government has also joined with Zhanjiang-based Guangdong Ocean University to establish 10 special labs to expand R&D for the city's prawn industry.

A State-level quality inspection and examination center has also been set up to help ensure the quality of prawns.

The city government now plans to set up an industry alliance for science and technologies to help guide and promote the development of the industry.

According to statistics from the city government, Zhanjiang - which borders Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and faces Hainan province across the Qiongzhou Strait - has registered a total of 225 prawn raising farms, 500 prawn nurseries and another 252 prawn processing firms that together employ more than a million people.

Its traditional markets have been the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, but grew to include Africa, Russia and South America in 2013.