Shrimp aquaculture production to increase five-fold

The shrimp aquaculture production and revenue is expected to increase by five-fold, with the inauguration of new expansion of Aquatic Quarantine Facility in Chennai.

According to Department of Animal Husbandry Dairying and Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, Seafood exports recorded an all time high figure of Rs 16,597.23 crore (around $3508.45 million), an increase of around 29% in Rupee terms and around 23% in dollar terms.

Shrimp accounted for around 50% of the value of seafood exports, an all time high of $1740 million foreign exchange earnings.

The increase in shrimp export was achieved mainly by surge in production from aquaculture mainly contributed by the native shrimp species, the black tiger shrimp.

The Ministry of Agriculture added the increased production of vannamei shrimp was one of the major reasons for setting the new high benchmark in seafood exports.

Vannamei was introduced in 2009 in India when there was a downturn in shrimp industry due to exclusive mondon culture and its associate disease outbreak.

RGCA created an additional wing, Phase II funded by National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), Ministry of Agriculture to quarantine more vannamei brooders keeping the sustainability of the industry in prior focus.

The third and the final phase of the facility is also underway which will boost the total quarantine capacity of the facility to 20 cubicles (quarantine around 2,37,600 brooder per annum) and would facilitate a five fold increase in shrimp aquaculture production and subsequent revenue earnings to the country.

The introduction of Vannamei to India through this approved quarantine premise had benefited in augmenting the marine shrimp production through acquaculture of the country from a level of around 88,000 MT worth Rs 1,915 crore in 2008-09 to about 145600 MT worth Rs 3,585 crore in 2010-11 and to about 224500 MT valued at Rs 6,600 crore in 2011-12.

Since its full fledged introduction, the aquaculture production of vanname rose from 1730 MT in 2009-10 to about 80717 MT in 2011-12, an annual growth of around 584%, thereby increasing its share in the total cultured shrimp production from 1.6% to around 35.9% in two years.