The governments decision to allow domestic farming of exotic prawn species, Litopenaeus Vannamei (commonly called white leg shrimp or Pacific white shrimp), in 2008, though much belated, has helped diversify the products basket for seafood exports. The countrys fast growing aquaculture industry had been demanding permission to farm Vannamei shrimp for long because it offered several advantages over some native species, including black tiger shrimp, which constituted the bulk of the shrimp exports.
Vannamei prawns reared from selectively bred disease-free seed thrive well under intensive farming situations, tolerate a wide range of water salinity and temperature fluctuations, and require relatively low-protein diets to save on feed cost. Besides, it can breed (mate and spawn) under captivity, showing a relatively high survival rate in the hatcheries.
Its introduction has indeed paid immediate dividends by way of a spurt in exports. Official numbers indicate that marine products exports touched a high of 0.86 million tonnes, valued at $3,508.45 million (Rs 16,597 crore), in 2011-12. This translates to a year-on-year growth of six per cent in quantity, 28.6 per cent in rupee earnings and 22.8 per cent in dollar terms. Frozen shrimp, including Vannamei, formed nearly 50 per cent of the seafood shipments. It is noteworthy that the export surge in 2011-12 came about at a time when the global seafood bazaar was passing through a recession because of over-supply, which tended to persist in part of 2012-13, as well. Debutant Indian Vannamei farmers, most of whom are small and marginal fish producers operating water bodies of 0.5 to five hectares, have managed to pocket good returns.
Vannamei is essentially a prawn species found commonly in the western Pacific Ocean. Under natural conditions, its adults prefer to dwell in the sea, while the juvenile like to live in estuaries. It was successfully bred in captivity for the first time in Florida in the early 1970s. This paved the way for its commercial cultivation that began in south and central America in the late 1970s and spread rapidly to other countries. China, Taiwan and Thailand are among the largest Vannamei producing countries now.
However, the Indian authorities reservations on permitting domestic farming of Vannamei, which delayed the countrys entry into the lucrative Vannamei export market, were understandable. Neither broodstock (mother shrimp) nor good quality seeds of Vannamei was locally available. Allowing their unregulated imports would have posed the risk of importation of exotic fish diseases that could prove perilous for the existing shrimp aquaculture industry. It was, therefore, good that while granting permission for the import of specific pathogen free Vannamei broodstock, the government imposed stringent quarantine requirements and restricted the entry of imported shipments to only the Chennai port, which was equipped to enforce the stipulated guidelines.
Since the success of commercial farming of Vannamei depends largely on the availability of good quality seeds, their local production was deemed imperative to reduce dependence on imports from countries like the US, Thailand and Singapore. The Rajiv Gandhi Centre of Aquaculture (RGCA), the R&D wing of the Marine Products Export Development Authority of India, has now begun producing Vannamei broodstock locally in collaboration with the Hawaii-based Oceanic Institute, a non-profit R&D body dedicated to marine aquaculture. RGCA last month offered the first batch of 20,000 mother shrimps free of pathogens of selected diseases for sale to the hatcheries to be used by them to produce good quality Vannamei seeds for fish farmers. These broodstocks have been bred at RGCAs production facility at Mangamaripeta in Visakhapatnam, which has a total annual production capacity of 45,000 mother shrimps, each costing a fraction of the imported shrimp. This project is said to have the potential of helping fish farmers to produce annually 135,000 tonnes of Vannamei shrimps, valued at Rs 4,000 crore in the export market, from 10,000-hectare water-spread.
Given the growing interest of the local aquaculturists in Vannamei cultivation, there is need to expand the broodstock production capacity at the Visakhapatnam centre or set up more such facilities. An expansion of Vannamei farming can, evidently, augment shrimp supplies for both export and domestic markets.
surinder.sud@gmail.com
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