Wang Xueguang, vice president of the China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance, led an expert delegation to Harbin, capital city of China's northernmost Heilongjiang province, to evaluate the city's regional brand development for the cold-region crayfish industry.
 
The delegation praised Harbin's dedication to developing the cold-region crayfish sector. They highlighted the city's distinctive industry advantages, superior product quality, robust technological support, and promising growth prospects, recommending that Harbin be awarded the title of "China's Cold-Region Crayfish Capital."
 
In recent years, Harbin has seen significant growth in crayfish seedling breeding, an increase in participating enterprises, a boost in farmers' incomes, and an enhanced brand effect.
 
Crayfish seedling numbers surged from 100,000 in 2021 to 10 million in 2024, a nearly hundredfold increase. The city has also established over 20 cold-region crayfish farming demonstration bases across six districts and nine counties, nurturing six representative enterprises.
 
This progress is attributed to the pioneering technological advantages of the Harbin Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The academy has created the unique "1234" cold-region crayfish development model.
 
Leading an industrial revolution: Cold-region crayfish will drive Heilongjiang's rice industry towards more integrated, intensive, and eco-friendly practices, influencing the layout of the national crayfish industry. The province’s green rice planting area spans nearly 30 million mu (2 million hectares), surpassing the national crayfish farming area.
 
Creating two farming models: the crayfish-rice co-culture model and the pond farming model.
 
Conquering three key seedling technologies: overcoming long-distance transport of southern crayfish seedlings, creating new overwintering techniques for parent crayfish, and developing cold-region greenhouse seedling cultivation technology.
 
Establishing four key farming standards: standards for paddy field and pond transformation, stocking density, application of medicines, bacteria, and fertilizers, and the complementary planting of rice varieties and aquatic plants.