A Clam Revolution:

Amber Yang’s family has been raising clams in Hanbao Village for over 60 years. Not yet 30, she is already highly decorated. Besides heading up the Changhua 5th Seafood Aquaculture Production and Marketing Group, she was named one of Taiwan’s Top 100 Young Farmers in 2022, a National Model Fisherman in 2024, and one of the nation’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons, also in 2024.

The brand she founded, Dabaoge, is the first in the market to receive organic certification for shellfish.

Covid-19: Crisis into opportunity

“Young people returning to the countryside” is a frequent topic in the press. But for Amber Yang and her younger brother Yang Chia-hung, taking over as the third-generation managers of the family aquaculture business has been a genuine “labor of love.”

Amber studied in the Department of Cultural and Creative Industries Management at National Taipei University of Education, and made Dabaoge her graduation project. Besides doing a detailed SWOT Analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), she set up a website. In the process the business received its first export order.

Meanwhile Yang Chia-hung, who had originally been studying foreign languages, transferred to the Department of Oceanography at National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU) for the benefit of the family business—without telling his relatives for a time.

In 2020, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, an order to export 500,000 metric tons of Yamato clams to Japan was withdrawn. At the same time, the Yangs’ products lost access to the Wellcome supermarket chain following the latter’s merger with Carrefour. The business was suddenly in jeopardy.

Amber, who was working at a public relations firm in Taipei, immediately quit her job and returned home. She and her brother Chia-hung, who had just graduated from NSYSU, worked step by step to improve packaging and marketing, build up brand image, acquire certifications, and develop new sales channels, until they eventually sold their backlog of products.

Amber Yang and her younger brother Yang Chia-hung are exemplars of family cohesion.

Clams are washed and graded, and allowed to purge themselves of sand and other impurities. At Dabaoge, ozone microbubbles are injected into the salt water to increase dissolved oxygen, which helps the clams to purge themselves more thoroughly.

A new future for the industry

Nonetheless, aquaculture conditions today are not as good as they were in the past, and “there is no longer an environmental advantage,” says Amber frankly. After 60‡70 years of intensive aquaculture, the environ­ment has deteriorated. Industrialization has created pollution, and due to the impact of climate change, the land has lost its nurturing capacity. These factors have all increased clams’ vulnerability to mass mortality.

The era when you could “raise seafood with your eyes closed” is past. To deal with these new problems, the Yang siblings turned to science to develop a modernized approach to aquaculture.

Every year each aquaculture pond is “conditioned” for two months by draining it and exposing the pond bed to sunshine, to disinfect the soil and create a healthier environment for seafood growth. Also, each day pond water is tested for dissolved oxygen, temperature, and pH value, while a microscope is used to track changes in microorganisms. Moreover, probiotics that the Yangs make themselves (such as photosynthetic bacteria and Bacillus subtilis) are added to improve water quality.

Yang Chia-hung uses a microscope to track changes in the microorganisms in the water.

Dabaoge’s aquaculture ponds are managed scientifically; the water quality is tested every day.

Dabaoge’s ready-to-eat food products don’t require refrigeration, making them convenient for consumers.

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In addition they have established a “reservoir” mechanism, whereby seawater that flows in at high tide must be tested before being channeled into ponds. Abandoning traditional models of feeding and care, they have switched to using “green water,” containing algae. Farming fish, shrimp, and shellfish together, they have created an ecosystem-like method in which species mutually support and check one another, making it possible to reduce the use of chemicals.

At the same time, for the convenience of consumers, clams are first washed by machine and screened by hand, and then ozone microbubbles are added to their water to increase dissolved oxygen, enabling the clams to purge themselves of sand and other impurities more completely. Consumers need only rinse them and can then cook them without further preparation.

As a result, in five short years Dabaoge has gone from nothing to successfully selling its products through organic produce sales channels like the Taiwan Homemakers’ Union Consumer Co-op and Cotton Field, and has secured procurement contracts with top-tier hospitality groups.

Aquaculture can be sustainable, but “only if problems are solved at their roots.” Amber Yang, as head of her local seafood production and marketing group, is leveraging Dabaoge’s brand power to unite neighboring fishermen and women in actively promoting this sustainable, eco-friendly aquaculture model. “It takes actions by individuals to give the industry hope.” Her tone of voice indicates that she feels duty-bound and determined to pioneer a new era for her industry.

Probiotics that Dabaoge produces itself are used to improve the quality of the water in their aquaculture ponds, without the need for pharmaceuticals.