Zhanjiang’sBillion-DollarPrivateEnte

“The rougher the sea, the more expensive the fish.” This line from the TV drama “The Knockout”, which describes “high-risk, high-reward” situations, is a saying among fishermen. However, modern fisheries in China focus more on aquaculture, rather than wild fishing.

In this business, Zhanjiang in southwest Guangdong has quite a story to tell. After all, the locally-based Evergreen Conglomerate, has made Guangdong’s Top 100 Private Enterprises list for years with billion-yuan seafood business.

What exactly does Evergreen sell? Their signature products are 2 kinds of shrimp and 6 kinds of fish. Take the South American white shrimp, for instance. The name alone gives the impression of an imported product. But, as a matter of fact, it has been “naturalized” in China since the late 1980s. In 2022, South American white shrimp accounted for 37% of total shrimp culture production. Popular dishes like open-rimmed shrimp with minced garlic and cheese-baked shrimp balls all use South American white shrimp as the main ingredients.

Evergreen played a significant role in bringing South American white shrimp to Chinese dinner tables. Since 2002, Evergreen has collaborated with Sun Yat-Sen University on shrimp breeding. After a decade, they developed the “Zhongxing-1” strain. Compared to Hawaiian imports, it shows 47.2% higher disease resistance and about 20% higher survival rate.

Being selected to participate in an important breeding project, is attributed to Evergreen’s heavy investment in research and development. In terms of infrastructure, Evergreen has established 18 Ramp;D platforms, a testing center, and a research institute with 8 subordinated branches. On the talent side, Evergreen has been working with numerous universities, building a formidable research team.

Beyond the success of “Zhongxing-1” in the field of shrimp culture, Evergreen has made remarkable progress in artificial breeding, and feed nutrition technologies for species like groupers, kingfish, golden pompano, and redfish. Evergreen’s achievements in fishery aren’t just weather-dependent anymore. They’re now powered by cutting-edge technology.

Industry, academia, research, and application often work as one. Evergreen’s strong commitment to Ramp;D, is matched by its ability to commercialize research outcomes. Evergreen is more than just an enterprise for fish breeding and selling. Since diversifying into feed production in 1995, Evergreen now boasts over 40 subsidiaries, covering a complete aquatic industry chain, including feed production and selling, seed breeding, aquaculture production, animal healthcare, and import and export trade.

The company continues to expand. Evergreen is now focusing on the food industry, transforming their farmed fish and shrimp into ready-to-eat delicacies for households. While seafood-based pre-made dishes are still a blue ocean market, competition is emerging. Rivals include aquaculture peers like Guolian and Anjoy, as well as pre-made dish specialists like Wei Zhi Xiang. Setting a strategy to give full play to its strengths and stand out in the fierce competition, is of great significance to Evergreen now. To this end, Evergreen is focusing on its “2 shrimps and 6 fish” strategy, creating star products like the 500-million-yuan sauerkraut fish soup, and overnight salted golden pompano, one of Guangdong’s top 10 pre-made dishes. Even if you haven’t bought directly from Evergreen, you might have tasted their products at restaurants like Haidilao or Tao Ran Ju. In 2022, Evergreen’s pre-made dish annual production value exceeded 2 billion yuan.

Leveraging domestic success, Evergreen is transforming its overseas business from primary to advanced processing. Pre-pandemic, Evergreen mainly exported fresh-frozen fish. Post-pandemic, they’re introducing seafood dishes representing China’s eight major cuisines globally. Now, exports account for 30% of Evergreen’s pre-made dish segment. In the EU, Africa, USA, Australia, and beyond, homesick overseas Chinese and foreign fans of Chinese cuisine alike, can more easily enjoy authentic Chinese dishes.

出品:南财国际传播中心 21新媒体中心 创意互动中心

策划统筹:于晓娜 丁青云

内容统筹:谭婷 陈思颖

执行统筹:黄欣然

设计统筹:林军明

视频统筹:白宇航

监制:施诗

英文翻译amp;配音:李莹亮

海外运营监制: 黄燕淑

海外运营内容统筹: 黄子豪

运营支持:曾静娇

审校:张晔 黄志明