The three-year action plan for ornamental fisheries has been implemented, ushering in a new cycle of standardized development in the aquarium feed industry

At the beginning of 2026, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs officially issued the "Three Year Action Plan for High Quality Development of Ornamental Fisheries (2026-2028)", which for the first time included ornamental fish food, food grade turtle food, and special aquatic feed in the key regulatory categories of special feed. Detailed management rules were issued from four dimensions: raw material control, production standards, testing standards, and product traceability, directly promoting the acceleration of standardization and upgrading of the entire aquatic feed manufacturing industry in China, and ushering in a new development cycle for the industry. This plan clearly proposes that by the end of 2028, 100% of domestic aquatic feed production enterprises above designated size will establish a full process sample retention and traceability system, requiring the division of three independent sample retention areas: raw materials, semi-finished products, and finished products, implementing dedicated personnel ledger management, with a sample retention period of no less than the product shelf life for each batch of products, and regularly completing sensory, physicochemical, and microbiological testing of more than ten indicators in three dimensions, completely solving the chaos of mixed raw materials, batch lack of records, and quality traceability in small and medium-sized workshops in the industry.
The policy implementation is synchronized with the supporting supervision and spot check mechanism. In 2026, a special section for aquatic feed will be added to the national feed sampling plan, covering 28 provinces and cities and thousands of production entities throughout the year. Key screening will be carried out for high-frequency risk points such as excessive heavy metals, oil oxidation, excessive microbial colony count, and illegal use of food grade turtle food additives in fish food. Market feedback shows that after the policy was introduced, the procurement threshold for downstream distributors and aquarium stores was synchronously raised. Channel providers preferred to choose production sources with a complete sample retention system and a complete set of quality inspection records. Orders from small processing plants without compliance qualifications decreased significantly, and industry elimination accelerated. From the perspective of industry data, the domestic aquarium feed market will exceed 4.2 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 11.8%, far exceeding the growth rate of traditional livestock and poultry feed. Policy regulations will further guide production capacity to concentrate on large-scale manufacturers with compliant production workshops, improved quality control laboratories, and professional research teams. At the same time, the plan encourages joint research and development of functional feed by schools and enterprises, supports innovative formula research and development such as probiotic addition, high fresh meat slurry puffing, and slow-release nutrition granules, provides subsidies for scientific research projects, green channels for patent application, and other support, promotes the transformation of the industry from low-end granule OEM to functional and nutrition customized high-end products, optimizes the industry's profit structure in the long run, and reverses the pain point of low-priced products occupying 70% of sales and continuous profit compression.