Efficiency in Chinese large yellow croaker aquaculture: Implication for sustainable aquaculture in China

Aquaculture supply from China has been a remedy to meet the growing global demand for seafood in the last decades. However, output growth has decreased dramatically in China in the 2000s. Previous literature focuses on the ecosystem problems arising in intensive farming in China. In this study, we used stochastic production analysis (SPA) to estimate the technical efficiency of Chinese large yellow croaker farming, which provides implications for impediments to the sustainable development of Chinese aquaculture. Data were collected from 430 large yellow croaker farmers in nine farming areas located along the coastline of southeastern China. The technical efficiency of large yellow croak farming is estimated to be 0.829, suggesting that farming is operated close to the production frontier with a maximal margin of 17% for improvement under the current technology. It further suggests that Chinese aquaculture growth is geared by conventional factors, expansion of fishing sites, and intensive farming, and is not sustainable under the constraint of farming areas and environmental problems in China. For the sustainable development of Chinese aquaculture, it is necessary to adopt new technology through innovation. The family-based farming model is a hinder to adopting new technology that requires systematic significant investment. Large-scale industrialized farming based on research and new technology development thus should be a modern trend in the future