BFAR indefinite live shrimp ban bears fruit PHILIPPINES Thanks to the indefinite ban on live shrimp imposed in April by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), the Philippines is now enjoying a disease-free status among the Asian countries. “The move proves to be correct since the Philippines remains EMS-free unlike our neighbours, and we are now reaping positive results,” remarked Asis G. Perez, BFAR director, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. BFAR decided that from April the processing of applications for the importation of all live shrimp for an indefinite period of time was cancelled so as to prevent the Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS) from entering and spreading all over the country. Perez stated that: “We are now exporting at least PHP 325 million (USD 7.5 million) worth of vannamei (white shrimp) monthly for the past three months. We expect shipments to be bigger in the coming months.” Asias shrimp stocks have been decimated because of EMS outbreaks which have devastated several Asian countries and have caused important financial losses to seafood producers. Given this situation, BFAR has published a list of countries which have been heavily infected by the disease: China, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Myanmar. EMS, also known as as AHPNS (acute hepatopancreatic necrosis syndrome), was first noticed in Asia four years ago. This disease is characterized by massive mortalities during the first 30 days of life, and infected shrimp show slow growth, corkscrew swimming, and pale coloration, informs BFAR. Proceso Alcala, Agriculture Secretary, believes the industry would benefit from stricter sanitary practices and is urging the local shrimp industry to implement them, reports the Philippine Star. Philippines had earlier suspended the export of white shrimp to concentrate on the production of tiger shrimp, after about 15 years it suffered heavy losses from diseases in their harvests. Now, the white shrimp has regained importance. “We are concentrating on the vannamei because tiger prawn takes longer to grow, about six to eight months,” Alcala pointed out. “From zero exports of vannamei in so many years, we are now exporting again. We started to ship three months ago, and this will continue monthly. Last month, we exported 50 containers and for this month we will ship 60 container vans,” Perez said. So far, exports of this variety of shrimp has been resumed to the United States, China and Korea. Gabriela Raffaele
Posted on: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 07:07:23 +0000
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