Technicians check up on quails in a breeding workshop. [Photo/ntfabu.com] 

Nantong Banxi Ecological Breeding Co Ltd in Rugao, a county-level city in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province, is pursuing sustainable development in the non-staple food industry.

To achieve a sustainable quail-breeding process and reduce pollution, the enterprise has separated the living area, breeding area, and excrement drying area for the birds. Sewage and clean water channels have also been separated.

In addition, steel structure buildings and temperature control systems have been adopted to improve the survival rate of the company's quails.

A worker collects quail eggs from a conveyor belt in a workshop. [Photo/ntfabu.com]

One workshop now can produce about 60 boxes of quail eggs a day, with each box weighing about 15 kilograms.

When the temperature rises, the breeding house will start breeding its birds. Another two workshops will begin operating as soon as possible. By then, the largest room should be able to accommodate about 260,000 quails, and the annual output value is estimated to be about 50 million yuan ($7.9 million).