Abstract

As an important component of marine economy, marine fishery provides a wealth of aquatic protein to urban and rural residents. Oysters are dominant group of shellfish with a long history of cultivation, well received by consumers, which determines the importance of oyster industry in marine fisheries. Guangdong and Guangxi region is China’s important oyster farming area, distribution centers and consumer markets, so sustained and healthy development of the oyster industry is directly related to quality and safety of oyster product, growth of fishermen’s income and social stability of fishing village in the region. Compared with the highly organized, largescale and intensive management of modern fishery, decentralized household operation is main management model of the oyster industry with small-scale production, backward technology, ineffective information anti risk ability is weak. The industry is in a weak position in the market competition, and it has been caused concern how to promote its sustained and healthy development. The development of oyster industry is related to many aspects, such as environment, technology, market and policy, and relies on scientific planning and co-ordination arrangements, and then it is necessary to study its characteristics and dilemma, and propose development strategies under new situation through systematic investigation.

Supported by the earmarked fund for Modern Agro-industry Technology Research System, we survey characteristics, development path and public policy of oyster industry in Guangdong and Guangxi region. Through the methods of interviewing with the local authorities, on-site inspection, survey of farmers and telephone confirmation, a large number of related materials have been collected and studied system atically. Using economics theory such as the tragedy of the commons, industry status, characteristic of industry chain, operating actual state of main firms and cooper atives are analyzed;cost, benefit and characteristics of value chain are calculated and analyzed by establishing the analytical framework;on this basis, development dilemma faced by the industry is summarized, and development target and path are proposed;existing policies and their problems are arranged, and improvement strategies are put forward through referring to the experience from both home and abroad.

This report is divided into eleven parts. The specific content of each part is:

First is introduction. Based on research background including development prospect of aquatic products, the contribution of oyster in aquatic products, and the status and problems of the oyster industry in the region, we establish research purpose, ideas, contents and methods, and summarize the innovation.

The second is literature review, summarizing main research results of domestic and international in the aspects of oyster, shellfish and aquaculture, especially those about distribution and efficacy of oyster, effects of heavy metals and viruses on oyster, situation and development of oyster industry.

The third is the theory analysis, explaining the main kernel of economics theory such as tragedy theory, information asymmetry theory, value chain theory, industrial structure theory, industrial layout theory, industrial cluster theory and public policy theory, and using these theories to analyze primarily the characters of oyster industry and explore its development direction.

The fourth is to analyze industry status and characteristic of industry chain of the oyster industry in the region, that is, introduce series data about breeding area, yield and output value, etc., and summarize the characteristic from links such as breeding, processing and sales, which is divided into total status and characteristic in the region, specific status and typical characteristic in four major producing areas including eastern Guangdong, Pearl River Delta region, western Guangdong and Guangxi.

The fifth introduces catalogue of main associated firms and cooperatives in the region, and analyzes their operating actual state which is operating situation and typical characteristic in the industrial management of four main oyster firms and three cooperatives based on the whole industry chain perspective from breeding history, breeding site, breeding species, breeding area, nursery, breeding, fatten, processing and marketing.

The sixth analyzes cost, benefit and characteristic of value chain in oyster in dustry. Based on cost-benefitanalytical framework and value-chain analytical frame-work, characteristics of value chain are summarized by calculating and analyzing cost, benefit and value added of industry chain nodes in the region and four major producing areas.

The seventh analyzes the dilemma faced by the oyster industry and development path in the region. Based on the actual investigation, environmental dilemma of the tragedy of the commons and benefit dilemma of the trap of high yield and low value faced by the oyster industry are analyzed from two perspectives of supply side and de mand side, and then systematic thinking of development goal and path of the oyster industry is proposed.

The eighth is the analysis on current public policies for oyster industry and existing problems in the region. Through carding the public policies on sea management, marine environmental protection, technological innovation, brand protection, financial support and insurance support, some problems of the policies restricting the development of oyster industry are found, including policy absence, ineffective policy implementation, and lack of policy oriented.

The nineth is about development status of domestic and foreign oyster industry and its related policy implications. Based on the analysis of development situation, management system and public policies of aquaculture in main oyster-producing countries including Japan, Korea, Canada and United States, related foreign policy implications are retained in construction of laws and regulations, role of science and technology, management department settings, fishery security system, product quality and safety, and industry support. Through analyzing favorable development conditions of oyster industry, status of aquaculture and industrial policies in other regions in China including fujian, shandong and Taiwan, related domestic policy implications are retained in industry support, industry associations and contribution of science and technology. Then reference of domestic and foreign policies is provided about development of aquaculture including oyster industry.

The tenth puts forward the strategy of improving public policies of oyster industry in this region, including displaying policy guidance function, improving the policy execution and complementing related policies.

The last is conclusion and prospect.

Overall, although the region has long history of oyster cultivating, the operating form of the oyster industry still belongs to a business type of extensive expansion of scale. The characteristics of industry chain is mainly showed as follows. The cultivating scale is large, but the processing remains in pre-processing stage. The distribution channels lose their control, and prices vary significantly. Firms and cooperatives play a role in promoting the oyster industrialization;however, the oyster industry is taken decentralized household operation as main management model with low degree of industrialization, weak self-organizing ability and low-end locking industry chain. Poor overall benefit, low unit output value, rising costs and low fixed input shows in cost-benefit analysis. The main characteristic of value chain is that the value added rate of industry chain node shows the trend of“inverted U”first increased and then decreased. The value added is mainly in the cultivating while the value added rate in the process is low, which illustrates that it’s insufficient for development and application of deep processing technology adapting to new consumer demand. There are some differences in the characteristics of oyster industry in the main producing areas. The oyster industry is facing two kinds of dilemmas. One is the environmental dilemma of the tragedy of commons with space compression, extensive operation, decentralized management, environmental deterioration and typhoon damage. The other is the benefit dilemma of the trap of high yield and low value with poor overall benefit, lack of innovation driven, incomplete value chain and“Bad money drives out good money”. Transformation and upgrading is the only way for the industrial develop ment. The development goal would be from extensive expansion to intensive development. The development pathes should be boutique culture, healthy breeding, deep processing, innovative marketing, moderate scale operation and industrialization management. Public policy should play a role, but there are serious defects in the existing policies. To guide industrial transformation and upgrading of oyster industry in the region, it is necessary to improving policies on management of sea use, marine environmental protection, innovation of science and technology, brand protection, financial support and fishery insurance based on learning from domestic and foreign policies.

This report has certain reference significance to the development ofoyster industry in the region and even the whole country.