Against the backdrop of China's active promotion of the "Blue Granary" strategy and expansion into deep-sea areas, Antarctic krill with reserves of up to 1 billion tons is becoming a strategic resource that countries are competing for. As a core force in China's marine science and modern marine industry development, Qingdao plays a pivotal role in the development of the national Antarctic krill industry with its strong research capabilities and comprehensive industrial layout.
Qingdao has written multiple "firsts" in the history of China's Antarctic krill industry development, from the successful extraction of China's first drop of Antarctic krill oil to deciphering the Antarctic krill genome map, from improving the high-value comprehensive utilization rate of Antarctic krill powder to 60% to contributing approximately 50% of the national Antarctic krill oil production. Each technological and industrial advancement demonstrates Qingdao's central position in the entire industry chain.
**Antarctic Krill Oil: About 50% of National Production Comes from This Enterprise**
On August 31st, in the krill oil softgel production workshop of Qingdao Antarctic Weikang Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Antarctic Weikang") located in Qingdao's Chengyang District, dark red and transparent krill oil capsules were being transported from the production line. "Extracting one drop of krill oil requires 162 Antarctic krill, making it extremely precious," said Liu Fugui, founder and chairman of Antarctic Weikang. Krill oil is rich in marine phospholipid-type omega-3, which helps improve immunity and provides antioxidant benefits, with an absorption rate of 99%, making it an upgraded product compared to fish oil.
This industry "hidden champion" established in 2015 has built China's largest Antarctic krill oil production line and is currently the domestic enterprise with the largest production capacity and output for Antarctic krill deep processing. "The company currently produces 800 tons of Antarctic krill crude oil annually, while producing 2 billion Antarctic krill oil softgels each year for the global market, with products exported to Europe, America, the Middle East and other countries and regions," Liu Fugui introduced.
In Qingdao's Antarctic krill oil production field, Antarctic Weikang can be described as dominant. According to company officials, Qingdao's krill oil production accounts for 50% of national krill oil production, mainly from Antarctic Weikang. The company has achieved annual output values exceeding 100 million yuan for three consecutive years. "We are committed to building the 'world's source factory for krill oil,'" Liu Fugui stated. To improve the high-value development and utilization of Antarctic krill resources, they have built a 100,000-level GMP "transparent factory" in Chengyang District.
Additionally, they have set their sights on deeper aspects of the industry—research and development and production of marine biomedicine and biological products. Currently, the factory located in Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay Comprehensive Bonded Zone has officially begun production, mainly producing Antarctic krill peptides, oyster peptides, sea cucumber peptides, fish collagen peptides and other marine oligopeptides, as well as fucoidan, alginate oligosaccharides, chitosan oligosaccharides and other marine polysaccharide products, with an annual production capacity of 500 tons. "With one production and R&D base in the east and one in the west, we have an independent and stable industrial chain," Chairman Liu Fugui said.
"Based on Qingdao's strong marine research capabilities, the company has strong intellectual support for sustained development," Han Jing introduced. Currently, the company has cooperated with the Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute to complete key technological breakthroughs in high-quality krill oil, total arsenic removal from krill oil, and functional protein peptide preparation, enabling krill oil products to reach international leading levels in terms of phospholipid content, transparency, and fluidity; in heavy metal content control, they exceed international leading levels.
**High-Value Comprehensive Utilization Rate of Antarctic Krill Reaches Around 60%**
The rapid development of Qingdao's krill oil industry is inseparable from Qingdao's strong research capabilities in the marine field. Professor Jiang Guoliang from the College of Marine Life Sciences at Ocean University of China participated in China's first Antarctic marine biological resource development and utilization project in 2009. In 2012, after tens of thousands of experiments, China's first drop of Antarctic krill oil was extracted from his laboratory and completed pilot testing in Jinan that same year, with products successfully exported overseas, laying a good foundation for Qingdao and even Shandong Province's development in this industry.
Subsequently, Qingdao and even Shandong accelerated progress in Antarctic krill industry development, with numerous enterprises emerging, the industry chain gradually improving, and krill oil extraction technology continuously upgrading. While the krill oil industry generally still uses 56% as the benchmark for high phospholipid content representative products, Antarctic Weikang has achieved large-scale production of krill oil with 65% phospholipid content, ensuring bright product color, good fluidity, and no unpleasant flavors.
"We innovated low-temperature phase separation purification technology, invented refining purification and quality maintenance technology, precisely achieving removal of unpleasant flavors and impurities, enhancing active components to more than 3 times that of natural raw materials," introduced Han Jing, General Manager of Antarctic Weikang.
The significant improvement in phospholipid content is inseparable from the continuous deep cultivation in this field by the Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences (hereinafter referred to as "Yellow Sea Institute"). After capturing Antarctic krill and processing it into krill powder, converting precious biological resources into actual products requires comprehensive utilization and processing technology research for Antarctic krill.
Researcher Leng Kailiang from the Yellow Sea Institute focuses on marine biological resource processing and comprehensive utilization. "Although Antarctic krill resources are relatively abundant, they are not inexhaustible, which requires more complete and reasonable utilization of krill resources under current circumstances." Since 2012, Leng Kailiang has led his team to conduct research on high-value comprehensive utilization technology for Antarctic krill lipids and proteins.
Associate Researcher Miao Junkui from the Fishery New Resource Processing and Comprehensive Utilization Team at the Yellow Sea Institute's Food Engineering Laboratory introduced that Antarctic krill deep processing mainly targets Antarctic krill powder. First, krill oil is extracted from krill powder, then the defatted krill powder after oil extraction is enzymatically processed into small-molecule krill protein peptides. The krill shells after protein extraction can be further processed as raw materials for producing chitosan and chitooligosaccharides. "This achieves complete utilization of krill resources," Miao Junkui said. Currently, the team has achieved high-value comprehensive utilization of krill lipids and proteins, completed production technology development and achievement transformation, and is researching green enzymatic preparation processes for krill shells.
"Currently, the high-value comprehensive utilization rate of Antarctic krill reaches around 65%," Miao Junkui said. Some enterprises' products and production technology levels have achieved parity with international enterprises.
**Krill Oil Industry Chain Gradually Improving**
With industry development, krill oil ancillary products and sales markets continue to expand. As a global leading Antarctic krill oil enterprise, Fengshi (Qingdao) Marine Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Fengshi Technology") was selected as a 2025 China Hidden Unicorn Enterprise this year, marking the company's second consecutive year on the hidden unicorn list.
According to industry insiders, Qingdao has formed a complete closed loop in the krill oil industry of fishing - research - processing - sales, with obvious synergistic effects in the industry chain. Currently, the industry focus is rapidly shifting from initial feed raw materials toward high-profit health food and biomedical raw materials.
Liu Fugui introduced that Qingdao is not only the birthplace of China's Antarctic krill industry but also its technology R&D center, processing and manufacturing center, and supply chain management center, occupying a pivotal strategic position in China's and even the global Antarctic krill development landscape. At the same time, he hopes Qingdao can better transform scientific and technological innovation into industrial advantages, construct a more complete modern marine industry system, extract more real gold from this trillion-yuan market value "maritime gold mine," assist in building a strong maritime province, and play the strongest note for high-quality development of the modern marine economy.