IN the warm winter sun, colorful koi fish swim freely in their ponds at an industrial park in Sanshilipu Township of Gaotang County, East China’s Shandong Province.

“Within a month leading to the Spring Festival holiday, our cooperative has seen booming sales of koi fish. Average daily sales achieved through livestreaming exceeded 10,000 yuan (around US$1,480),” said Feng Yuetong, a Xuma Xincun Village local and member of the Guangshun koi fish breeding cooperative.

Xuma Xincun was once a village without pillar industries, and residents could only work the soil.

In recent years, the village has taken advantage of such local resources as ponds and other water bodies to develop a koi fish breeding industry.

The Sanshilipu Township has arranged for fish farming professionals to provide technical guidance for koi fish breeding enterprises and farmers. It is also promoting an ecological koi fish breeding model, and is building a koi fish raising cluster integrating scientific research, breeding, sales and tourism.

Xuma Xincun has established the Guangshun koi fish breeding cooperative and introduced e-commerce to help farmers expand their sales.

Sanshilipu’s koi fish industrial park now raises the fish in more than 1,000 mu (66.7 hectares) of water bodies, with an annual output value of 300 million yuan, hiring more than 2,000 people.

In Xuma Xincun, the villagers earned a total income of 250,000 yuan last year. “The locals’ lives are getting better. Now they have moved into nice communities,” said Xia Guangshun, the village’s Party chief.

Like Xuma Xincun, people in other villages in Gaotang County are also raising koi fish to improve their lives.

At present, Gaotang has over 390 households and 47 firms that raise the fish. The county’s koi fish breeding area has exceeded 8,000 mu; the locals breed 300 million koi fish fries annually, turning out revenues of 800 million yuan.

There are more than 30 varieties of koi fish in Gaotang. According to variety and appearance, the price of a koi fish ranges from hundreds of yuan to hundreds of thousands of yuan, said Yang Fugui, president of the Gaotang County koi fish association.

Gaotang has earned the “China’s Koi Fish Capital” title, endorsed by the China Fisheries Association.

In recent years, Gaotang koi fish have not only been sold across China, but also to a number of Southeast Asian countries.

“Koi fish represent good luck and great riches in Chinese culture. The Gaotang koi fish breeding business has brought wealth to locals,” Yang said.

(Xinhua)