URUMQI, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Far from the crashing waves and salty sea air, Jiang Shengguo is busy carefully examining the Pacific white shrimps he breeds in a pond in Wuqia, a township of Kuqa City, which is nestled just 100 km away from China's largest desert Taklimakan.

Situated in the hinterland of the Eurasian continent, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China, is the furthest point from any coastline. Despite an arid climate and deserts scattered across its territory, the vast region surprisingly enjoys excellent conditions for aquafarming. With over 3 million hectares of water bodies suitable for fish farming, the region offers a vast expanse that is around five times the size of Shanghai City.

Jiang is one among the many local breeders venturing into the realm of providing fresh seafood, even though he is hundreds of miles away from the coastline. His some 40 ponds can yield an annual production of around 25 tonnes of Pacific white shrimps, or whiteleg shrimps, a species of prawn native to the eastern Pacific Ocean.

For more than a decade, Jiang has worked as an apparel merchant, traveling extensively throughout the country. During his journeys, he has had the opportunity to taste the delicious seafood dishes in numerous coastal cities. Whenever he looked at the glass tanks filled with live seafood outside restaurants, he couldn't help but wonder, "Can we farm seafood in Xinjiang?"

Years ago, Jiang, an astute businessman, recognized a potential opportunity. Fresh aquatic products, shipped from outside Xinjiang, sold extremely well in markets in Kuqa despite their high price tags. With this insight, Jiang decided to switch his business focus.

Defying geography is no small feat. Water was the first element that presented challenges to this business opportunity. Jiang invited experts from Tarim University and Ocean University of China to test the water quality in Kuqa. Their conclusion was that it was worth a try, but local water is too hard and too alkaline for marine culture, and has an unbalanced proportion of micronutrients. This meant that creating artificial sea water would be a difficult task.

"The salinity of local water is only 5 g/kg," Jiang explains, the figure is way too low as seawater typically has a salinity of around 35 g/kg.

"To solve this problem, we must cultivate seeds that can grow in seawater with a minimal salinity," Jiang added.

Jiang studied for several months in Jiangsu Province, a fishery powerhouse in east China, and hired two agrotechnicians to make artificial seawater.

After a year of unsuccessful trials, the two agrotechnicians decided to quit their job. Only a small number of young shrimps managed to survive in the pond, leaving Jiang feeling dissatisfied with the failure.

"Those few surviving seeds proved there was still room for improvement," says Jiang, recalling the most difficult moment in his career.

Jiang experimented in different conditions -- laying the pond bottom with sand, mud or plastic sheet, and trying different proportions of salt and micronutrients. After spending around 1 million yuan (136,800 U.S. dollars), he has managed to bring the seed's survival rate above 80 percent.

Boasting a firm texture and a delicious flavor, Jiang's fresh shrimps are a hot commodity in Kuqa.

Jiang plans to expand his breeding scale to 70 ponds, which are expected to yield 50 tonnes of shrimps, or 3 million yuan a year.

"Demand for my fresh shrimps is outrunning supply. Orders from Kashgar, Korla, Aral and other cities in Xinjiang have been coming. I have to hurry to build more ponds," Jiang says. Enditem

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