How ‘salmon’ raised in landlocked Xinjiang is netting fans in China | South China Morning Post

VirtualRichDream · 2026-03-25T02:21:26+00:00

Xinjiang, China, is developing a trout-farming industry fueled by meltwater from mountains, aiming to become the nation's top producer. This shift follows scrutiny of cotton labor practices and rising demand for fish, particularly after regulations allow rainbow trout to be marketed as salmon.

VirtualRichDream

2026-03-25 02:21:26

Abstract generation in progress

Meltwater from snow-capped mountains is fostering an emerging trout-farming industry thousands of kilometres from the sea in western China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The region, famous for its cotton, is on track to become China’s top trout producer as it ramps up efforts to diversify its agricultural base following criticism of labour practices in the cotton sector that led to import bans overseas.

In 2018, in response to rising domestic demand for Atlantic salmon and limited local supply, Chinese regulators allowed rainbow trout, a closely related species, to be labelled and sold as salmon. The “freshwater salmon” farmed in Xinjiang is primarily triploid rainbow trout, a sterile strain that grows faster and is better suited for large-scale farming.

Landlocked Xinjiang started large-scale farming of trout in 2021, and industry insiders said it was not only the fish that were growing quickly.

“The local farming scale has expanded rapidly in recent years, with an increasing number of farmers entering the sector,” said Shi Lianyu, a researcher at the government-backed Xinjiang Aquatic Products Development Centre.

While official output data for last year has not been released, he estimated it would be more than 10,000 tonnes (11,023 short tons).

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