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Thursday, April 13, 2006
Shrimp industry gears up for a rebound
IN THE 1980s, the shrimp and prawn industries in the Philippines were on the rise, thanks to the premium prices the homegrown black tiger prawn commanded in the international market. Business was too good traditional crops were abandoned in near-shore farmlands and converted into prawn ponds.
In the 1990s, the industry suffered a decline when diseases swept prawn farms from Luzon to the Visayas. It has not fully recovered since.
Survivors of the decade-long prawn pestilence are fighting back, determined to win lost markets by adopting the latest in prawn farm technology, commercializing other species side by side the tiger prawn, and adopting the best hatchery and feeding practices.
All of these will highlight the 5th National Shrimp Industry Congress slated in the middle of the year.
This early, leaders of the Philippine Shrimp Industry Association (Philshrimp) are already pinning their hopes on a new variety of white shrimp with the exotic scientific name of Litopeneaus vannamei, native to South America.
After hurdling some quarantine and bureaucratic red tape, the local shrimp industry, in partnership with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Bfar) succeeded in importing breeding stocks for the white prawn for controlled production in government experimental farms.
The exotic varieties of shrimp were brought in only for research and development only to be commercially produced if proven to be more productive and less prone to diseases as the legendary tiger prawn.
Results of the pilot farm projects are to be known during the convention. On which it will anchor a new program to revitalize the industry by popularizing and new shrimp variety or industry players and the government will go back to the experimental farms to develop a disease-resistant member of the tiger prawn family.
This early, results have been encouraging. It is now perceived that the white prawn will hasten the industry's goal to enhance prawn production and augment the incomes of farmers, traders, exporters, processors and feed millers.
Hand in hand with the introduction of a new species for commercial raising, the congress has been envisioned to update shrimp farmers on the latest advances on shrimp farming in the Asia-Pacific region, the best shrimp farming practices in Thailand and new products in aqua-culture.
The congress will also be heavy on upgrading technologies in hatchery, prawn culture and feeding.
The industry is likewise expected to arrive at its own marketing strategy for both fresh and processed products.
Movers behind the shrimp industry promise to hit not only the foreign, but the local marketplace in the next few years with an abundance of the new white shrimp. (Abe P. Belena/Philexport News and Features/Sunnex)
(April 13, 2006 issue)
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