Inside Workshop No. 3 of the intelligent breeding and farming facility for freshwater shrimp in Shuangqiao Village, Xiazhu Lake Street, 42 temperature-controlled shrimp ponds, each roughly 60 square meters in size, are arranged in neat lines. Layers of shrimp shelters are stacked within the water, with the crustaceans clinging to them. This marks the debut of the facility's first batch of commercial-grade shrimp.

At the intelligent shrimp breeding and farming facility, "In the past, July and August were the toughest months," explained Gu Quanbin, the operations manager. With traditional pond farming, shrimp fry typically emerge in late May and reach the market in a concentrated wave in late September, leaving only two annual sales windows. "Our goal was to seize the two-month gap in supply to bring our shrimp to market earlier, reversing the situation where there was only investment and no return." Last year, he invested in building factory-style farming workshops, moving the shrimp from open-air ponds indoors. A constant-temperature, oxygen-rich water circulation system was established, placing growth variables like water temperature and dissolved oxygen under machine control.

"There are many examples of factory fish farming, but almost none for shrimp," Gu Quanbin remarked, standing by the pond. "The initial Workshop No. 1 had 34 ponds, but the shrimp fry suffered from insufficient dissolved oxygen and low survival rates. Our team tested water quality daily and made rounds of adjustments before the shrimp could settle comfortably into their shelters." The data highlights the success: a single 60-square-meter pond in the factory farming workshop can yield around 55 kilograms of shrimp per season, matching the output of a one-mu (approx. 667 square meters) traditional pond. Yet it occupies only a tenth of the land and allows for a two-month earlier market entry.

According to reports, the first phase, comprising two workshops with a total of 76 ponds, can produce 200 million fry and 15,000 kilograms of commercial shrimp annually, generating approximately 11 million yuan in yearly sales revenue. The constant-temperature water circulation system and the innovatively designed shrimp shelters at the facility not only provide a comfortable environment but also reduce the likelihood of aggressive interactions during molting, significantly boosting productivity and enabling year-round fry sales.

Deqing is known as the "Hometown of Chinese Freshwater Shrimp," maintaining a farming area of around 70,000 mu and an annual output exceeding 8,900 tons, with a yearly production value of approximately 990 million yuan. Li Fei, an associate researcher at the Zhejiang Institute of Freshwater Fisheries, told reporters that the project pioneers a factory-based intelligent breeding and farming technology system for freshwater shrimp. This innovation not only minimizes the constraints of external factors during the seedling and reproduction stages but also fills a technological gap in large-scale intelligent shrimp farming across the Yangtze River Delta and the entire nation. Once the entire project is fully operational, it is projected to produce 5.2 billion fry and 130,000 kilograms of commercial shrimp annually, with expected sales revenue of around 145 million yuan.

Every July and August, outdoor pond shrimp are in their fry release and molting phases, leading to a market shortage and rising prices. By September, a glut of new shrimp typically causes prices to drop. Factory farming capitalizes on this timing gap, a benefit that local farmers feel most acutely. "We've been waiting for these fry since May," said a shrimp farmer purchasing stock from the facility, noting that with a two-month head start, the same shrimp can fetch better prices. Currently, the research and development center at the breeding facility is continuously monitoring the behavioral habits of the shrimp, turning every feeding cycle and water quality change into data to build a precision aquaculture database. The ultimate aim is to achieve year-round seedling production and shrimp farming across all seasons.