Prices of shrimp seeds likely to soar this season

Tsunami set to push up brooder prices

Shrimp seed hatchery owners in the state expect shrimp seeds to command attractive prices during the coming season.

At present only a few hatcheries in the state have started producing shrimp seeds and it is expected that from the third week of January, seeds will come from almost all hatcheries in the state in huge quantities.

"During the last season we sold shrimp seeds at a price of between 15 paise and 20 paise each. This year, we expect between 25 paise and 30 paise on each seed. The first batches are already getting prices of about 30 paise and this will continue in the coming weeks also," M.Sudarsan Swamy, president of All India Shrimp Hatcheries Association and managing director of Santir Aquatic Private Limited, told Business Standard.

In the last season due to the uncertainty about the levying of the anti-dumping duty by the US government and a fall in exports to Japan the BT shrimp purchasing price dropped between 20 per cent and 25 per cent.

"This had led to many farmers in the state stop shrimp farming during the time of the second crop last season and consequently consumption came down by about 40 per cent," Swamy pointed out.

"Due to the drop in shrimp seed consumption hatchery owners also cut production between 40 per cent and 50 per cent and in addition to this the shrimp seed selling prices stagnated at around 20 paise during the entire last season," he stated.

Of the 300 shrimp seed hatcheries in the country, 180 are located in the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh. "The 180 hatcheries have a production capacity of around nine billion seeds per annum.

At present, there are plenty of brooders (mother prawns) available at a reasonable price of between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 each and each mother prawn is capable of generating about 3-5 lakh nauplis (shrimp eggs)," he added.

The recent tsunami waves though are expected to push up the prices of the brooders, Swamy said.