Smart manufacturing enhances quality of aquatic feeds

Visitors to the feed processing base operated by Guizhou Chuanpai Feed Co – a subsidiary of State-owned Guizhou Agricultural Investment Group – are greeted by a bewildering array of large-scale automated equipment.

The center – which is located in Guiyang, capital city of Southwest China's Guizhou province – is responsible for a great deal of major work, with smart manufacturing enhancing the quality of aquatic feeds.

The front-end machinery automated unloading, centralized control room for precise ingredient measurements, and the machine-operated packaging in the back-end – are all indicative of the power of intelligent manufacturing.

Depending on the specific feed formula, proportion parameters for each ingredient are preset in the central control system.

The raw materials begin their journey through processes like batching, mixing, extrusion and drying, with all equipment operating under airtight conditions to ensure feed safety and quality.

Adjacent to the drying equipment, a bottle of water holds floating aquatic feed particles.

Huang Guichuan, a quality control specialist at Guizhou Chuanpai Feed Co, explained, "Traditional aquatic feeds dissolve quickly in water, impacting both feeding and water quality.

"However, with our extrusion process, feed particles can maintain their stability in water for up to 10 hours, making them easy to feed and environmentally friendly."

Since commencing production at the end of 2021, the base has focused on the research and production of specialty aquatic feeds for species like perch and sturgeon.

In addition to meeting local demand in Southwest China's Guizhou province, these high-quality products are also exported to markets in Yunnan and Chongqing.