BEIJING, Aug. 3 -- China will accelerate its development of deep-sea and far-sea mariculture as it makes efforts to safeguard the nation's food security by filling up its "blue granary," a Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs official has said.

Developing mariculture in deep-sea areas is conducive to increasing high-quality marine fishery food supplies, and to accelerating the upgrading of mariculture while protecting the marine ecological environment, according to the ministry.

Surging demand for marine products and a continuous decline in offshore cultivated areas mean the deep-sea and far-sea mariculture industry has great development potential, the ministry said.

China has made headway in its advancement of mariculture technology and selective breeding. Its deep-sea mariculture output was 393,000 tonnes in 2022, accounting for over 20 percent of the nation's total output of maricultural products.

Chinese authorities recently unveiled guidelines urging efforts to advance the development of deep-sea and far-sea mariculture across the industrial chain.

The guidelines included measures to improve the spatial layout of mariculture, promote the research and development of mariculture technology and equipment, and intensify the monitoring of work safety standards.

China's marine economy saw strong recovery momentum in the first quarter of this year, with the country's gross marine product growing 5.1 percent year on year to hit 2.3 trillion yuan (about 321.7 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for 8.2 percent of China's gross domestic product, official data shows.