Zhoushan in East China's Zhejiang province plans to allocate 60 million yuan ($8.97 million) each year to support the development of local distant-water fishing. [Photo/WeChat account: zjzsqdxq]

Zhoushan in East China's Zhejiang province plans to allocate 60 million yuan each year to support the development of local distant-water fishing, Zhoushan Daily reported on Oct 23.

The city has formulated a five-year plan for the high-quality development of this industry.

According to the plan, by 2024, the entire distant-water fishing industrial chain should generate 80 billion yuan in output, including 30 billion yuan in services, 25 billion yuan in processing, and 25 billion yuan in trading.

To achieve this goal, the Zhoushan municipal government has rolled out a number of incentives.

Ocean fishing companies will receive 300 yuan per metric ton of tuna, 200 yuan per ton of marine fish, and 100 yuan per ton of squid, striped tuna, and saury if they are caught at Zhoushan ports and traded at the aquatic product trading center of the Zhoushan National Distant-water Fishing Base.

Fish processing companies will receive an award of 600,000 yuan if they purchase and process more than 20,000 tons of distant-water aquatic products at the center in a given year and if the annual rate of increase in their purchases and processing exceeds 30 percent.

Such companies will receive an award of 1 million yuan if the two above-mentioned figures are more than 40,000 tons and 20 percent, respectively.

Fishing companies will receive up to 5 million yuan in awards if they purchase large new factory-trawlers, large seiners, or other advanced fishing boats.

Companies will be awarded a maximum of 1 million yuan if they undertake exploratory fishing missions assigned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

Fishing companies will also be granted 500,000 or 1 million yuan if they are identified as leading provincial or State-level companies.