Shrimp production has been one of the success stories of Asian aquaculture over the past 30 years. During that time global production of farmed shrimp has risen from less than 500,000 metric tonnes to almost 4 million metric tonnes with Asian countries leading the way. However, since 2012, farmed shrimp production in Asia began to show a steep decline due to the impact of the early mortality syndrome or EMS. “EMS has taken a third of the global annual tonnage of farmed shrimp off markets and the subsequent economic impact has favoured those who still have shrimp to sell at record high prices,” says Zuridah Merican, Editor of Aquaculture Asia Pacific (AAP). Despite enjoying high prices, some producers remain concerned about its future impact. While EMS has been shown to have a bacterial etiology, curative treatments are still far away and farmers continue to have doubts about the success of future stocking. Loss in production from EMS and other diseases is not just the plight of shrimp farmers. It has a multiplier effect on stakeholders across the entire supply chain, from broodstock to hatchery, to feed producers and processing plants. Loss of revenue and the social impact of job losses are some concerns at the country level. To facilitate open dialogue among key stakeholders, AAP and Corporate Media organized the fourth Aquaculture Roundtable Series (TARS 2014) in Phuket from August 20-21, 2014. Under the theme, Recovery - Revival - Renaissance, the two-day meeting explored on various aspects of the shrimp aquaculture industry, particularly the disease challenges and culture technology and practices. EMS an ‘accident waiting to happen’ Daniel Fegan, a technical manager for aquaculture Cargill Animal Nutrition, said that the biggest change in Asia’s shrimp farming was the switch from monodon to vannamei shrimp in the early 2000’. The boom in vannamei production in Asia led to a relaxation of standards that, in turn, allowed the spread of EMS, said Fegan. “We went for ten years with relatively little disease problems, now we have the most serious disease epidemic to date,” he said. According to him, the industry has “slipped in terms of post larvae (PL) quality; pond preparation; water quality; and biosecurity”. “The ease of production of vannamei made the industry get complacent and forget to do the basic stuff.” PL testing is something that used to be done more in the black tiger era ten years ago, said Fegan, adding, “…If this was done more now, then maybe we might have caught the problem [with EMS] earlier.” Manoj Sharma, managing director of Mayank Aquaculture, a farmer based in Gujurat, India, echoed this point. India should focus on farming vannamei like it’s black tiger, he told attendees during the TARS conference. India’s farmers should grow vannamei with one production cycle instead of two, low stocking density and an emphasis on large sizes, said Sharma. Until 2009, India was only farming black tiger, he said. Because of production stagnation due to diseases, which limited output at 80,000t, the Indian government allowed vannamei farming to start. Production has exploded and is currently at around 300,000t, with 90 percent vannamei, he said. This explosion in demand has pushed up the seed prices from INR 0.30 to INR 0.80, which is causing producers to cut corners and leading to the introduction of “spurious” shrimp to the market, said Sharma. This is increasing the risk of disease. Roeland Wouters, a research and development engineer with Inve Aquaculture, also warned against the shortsightedness of looking to cut costs on PL. The cost of PL production is very small compared to that of grow out production, so farmers should not compromise on the feed and management of PLs, said Wouters, speaking at TARS. In addition to the main cost, “grow out is also where the gross margin is made”, he said. In times when the industry moves toward greater integration and increased control, while facing hard times to overcome diseases, PL quality and its long-term effects gain a lot of interest of hatchery operators and grow-out farmers, he said. There is also a link with PL and EMS, according to sources cited by Wouters in the Malaysian aquaculture sector. Higher-quality PLs have a big cost benefit, according to a model presented by Wouters, which you can see below. The sector generally needs better management and genetic selection programs, as it is “dependent on a relatively few well-managed genetic programs”, said Fegan. As farmers got caught up with boosting production, “pond preparation times have shrunk”, he said. More investment in the ponds, such as lining, which would up costs, would also be a major benefit for prevention of EMS and other diseases. This was also something Sharma focused on in his presentation, stating that pond preparation, high quality PLs and strong biosecurity are key to his business model. Impact on the world’s supply of farmed shrimp Due to the EMS uncertainty, all speakers at TARS believed that the farmed shrimp production in 2013 would be lower than 2012. Daniel Fegan was the most optimistic when estimating world production of farmed shrimp in 2013 at around 3.25 million metric tonnes, including just over 500,000 tonnes of tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon), down from 2012 . Panisuan Jamnarnwej, president emeritus of the Thai Frozen Foods Association (TFFA) and the longtime managing director of processor Pakfood, now part of Thai Union Frozen Products, gave the lowest estimate on world production of farmed shrimp—1.8 million metric tonnes. According to his data, in 2013, farmed shrimp production in China declined 33 percent to 300,00 tonnes. In Thailand, it dropped 54 percent to 250,000 tonnes. Meanwhile, India and Vietnam made big gains, rising 42 percent to 270,000 tonnes and 41 percent to 240,000 tonnes, respectively. Manoj Sharma predicted world production of farmed shrimp came in at 3.1 million metric tonnes in 2013. He gave China 1.1 million metric tonnes, Indonesia 608,000 tonnes, India 330,000 tonnes, Vietnam 300,000 tonnes, Thailand 270,000 tonnes, Ecuador 230,000 tonnes, Bangladesh 95,000 tonnes, Malaysia 79,000 tonnes, Brazil 65,671 tonnes and Mexico 40,816 tonnes. Fernando Garcia Abad, aquaculture business development director for Epicore Bionetworks, a producer of biotechnology products and specialty animal feeds focused on the shrimp sector, estimated world production of farmed shrimp at 2.7 million metric tonnes. By Pauline Tal
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 08:20:08 +0000
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