I See through Everything

Month 1: Glass eel growth phase, using Hai Xue feed.

Months 2–6: Elver fattening phase, using fattening feed.

Month 7: Adult eel purging phase, using purging feed.

To harvest one metric ton of mature eels, it would require approximately 0.1 tons of Hai Xue feed, 1.45 tons of fattening feed, and 0.3 tons of purging feed. This totals 1.85 tons of feed, with a total cost of 28,250 yuan.

Jiang Miao had already filed for over a hundred patents for related eel feed formulas, almost completely shutting down any possibility of imitation by future competitors.

Without this many patents, other feed mills could have easily produced a similar eel feed simply by adding a few useless ingredients and slightly tweaking the other components.

That’s why the maniacal Jiang Miao had preemptively plugged every conceivable loophole, making it impossible for other feed mills to circumvent his patented formulas.

After all, these eel feed formulas were incredibly valuable. They could grow an eel to 1.5–1.8 kilograms in about six months, representing an immense financial opportunity.

For a feed that was to be sold commercially, it was impossible to keep the formula a secret.

Filing for patents on a massive scale thus became the only viable option.

This was different from the eel breeding technology. If someone were to secretly use that technology, it would be very difficult for Hailufeng Company to investigate and gather evidence.

However, a fish feed sold on a large scale couldn’t be produced in secret. As soon as it hit the market, it would be easy to investigate and collect evidence.

Furthermore, Jiang Miao’s feeds involved certain proprietary techniques; they couldn’t be easily replicated just by following the recipe.

This came down to the issue of the fish feed’s raw materials.

Take the fattening feed formula, for example.

Its formula was 76.53% Egyptian Catfish Meal, 2.18% Egyptian Catfish oil, 2.12% cassava starch, 9.69% high-gluten wheat flour, 3.24% brewer’s yeast, 0.86% sodium caseinate, and 1.67% pork liver powder. The remainder consisted of various vitamins, minerals, and trace compounds.

It looked easy enough to imitate, right?

But what Jiang Miao wouldn’t tell anyone was that he used Egyptian Catfish meal and oil, as well as cassava starch and wheat flour sourced from specific regions.

Many people might think, ’Isn’t it all just fish meal, fish oil, starch, and flour?’

In reality, however, there were huge differences.

The vast majority of imported fish meal and oil was made from sardines. The protein types, the proportions of those proteins, and the types and proportions of oils in sardines are all different from those in Egyptian Catfish.

Moreover, the degree of cooking and the processing methods used during the secondary processing of the Egyptian Catfish meal and oil also made these raw materials more suitable for eels.

On the surface, both were just fish meal and oil, but on a deeper level—in terms of bioavailability, trace elements, and vitamins—there were significant differences.

For ordinary feed, this difference might not be noticeable.

But Jiang Miao’s formula was genetically tailored for eels, designed to maximize their healthy and rapid growth.

If someone were to substitute sardine meal and oil for the Egyptian Catfish meal and oil without adjusting the other raw materials—the cassava starch, wheat flour, vitamins, and minerals—the fattening period for the eels would increase by about 32%.

This was a classic case of a miss being as good as a mile.

...

As they walked on, the group saw the factory next door.

The adjacent factory was to the south of the feed mill, also along the main road. Hailufeng Company had acquired it a week ago. It was slightly smaller than the feed mill, covering an area of only 89 mu.

However, the company had already negotiated with the Salt Town Village Committee and the Magong Town government to lease the surrounding 200 mu of land for Hailufeng Company’s indoor farming base.

The adjacent factory was currently being renovated. It was a new plant for the cannery division, intended primarily for producing a line of fish ball products.

The 200 mu of land near the fish ball factory would serve as a complementary, simple indoor farm, specifically for raising the Egyptian Catfish the company purchased.

The Egyptian Catfish slated to be raised in this simple indoor farm were intended as raw materials for the fish ball factory, not the feed mill.

After all, the Egyptian Catfish purchased from outside had a very strong, muddy flavor. To purge this taste, they had to be kept in clean water ponds for a month and fed a special diet. This would reduce the geosmin levels in their bodies to about 1% of the original amount.

This necessitated the use of a simple indoor farm.

Fortunately, Egyptian Catfish weren’t as delicate as eels. They didn’t require strict temperature and salinity control; as long as the pond water was kept clean, it was enough. This significantly reduced electricity and equipment costs.

Placing the feed mill, fish ball factory, and Egyptian Catfish Farm together also offered other advantages.

For example, it would facilitate the transport and full utilization of raw materials.

The fish ball factory only needed the flesh of the Egyptian Catfish. The remaining skin, bones, heads, organs, and small scraps of meat could all be sent to the feed mill to be made into fish meal and fish oil.

Likewise, the scraps left over from producing canned eel at the main cannery could be brought to the feed mill as raw materials.

These were the advantages of having an integrated industrial chain.

A single aquaculture business could branch out into feed, food processing, and raw material supply.

"Haibo, Old Fang, in addition to the high-end fish feed, we also need to prepare to produce some lower-grade feeds, like a fattening feed for the Egyptian Catfish."

Fang Yi immediately proposed, "Boss, our factory can also produce the No. 4 fish feed specifically for Egyptian Catfish, but I suggest we open a second plant. This factory is running out of space."

"Agreed." Jiang Miao turned to Jiang Haibo. "Haibo, acquire another factory nearby as soon as possible to serve as our second feed mill."

"Understood." Jiang Haibo nodded. There were plenty of idle factories in the area; as long as they had the money, finding a suitable one would be easy.

When it came to the Egyptian Catfish, which could be harvested in about three months, Jiang Miao was actually quite dissatisfied with the efficiency of the small-scale farmers.

The main issue was that many farmers, trying to save money, fed their Egyptian Catfish kitchen scraps and leftovers.

This kind of unprocessed, unformulated feed not only lowered the quality of the catfish meat but also dragged down their fattening efficiency.

Jiang Miao’s improved No. 4 feed used soybean meal, corn, cassava starch, and superworm meal as raw materials, with the superworm meal replacing fish meal.

Its estimated market price was 6,000 yuan per ton.

Using the No. 4 feed would allow Egyptian Catfish to reach a yield of about 15,000 kilograms per mu in roughly three months.

The combined feeding cost for this would be 2.4 tons of No. 4 feed, 3 to 4 tons of fresh sweet potatoes and sweet potato leaves, and 11 to 12 tons of Napier grass meal, for a total cost of around 23,600 yuan.

Including other expenses, the total farming cost for 15 tons of Egyptian Catfish would be between 26,000 and 28,000 yuan. With Hailufeng Company’s purchase price at 3,000 yuan per ton, those 15 tons would sell for 45,000 yuan, yielding a gross profit of 17,000 to 19,000 yuan.

In contrast, if farmers didn’t use the formulated feed, the total cost per mu would be around 6,000 to 7,000 yuan, for a gross profit of only 8,000 to 9,000 yuan.

Hailufeng Company didn’t plan on forcing farmers to use the formulated feed. Once the potential for profit became clear, the farmers would make the choice themselves.