How India has gone to become the world's second largest shrimp producer

Once dogged by diseases, the shrimp sector saw a turnaround post-2009

Till 2008, like any other shrimp farmer in India, Saji Chacko too was struggling with his farm at Bilimora in Gujarat because of repeated outbreaks of diseases. He decided to do something about it and in 2009, became the first farmer in India to get a licence to commercially produce pathogen-free Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei).

With that, the story of his shrimp business turned. And so did that of India’s shrimp industry, as the country opened the doors to farmers like Chako to start producing this disease-free variety. Today, the country is the second largest producer of shrimps in the world, second only to Ecuador.

Shrimps now make for 67 per cent of India’s seafood exports of $7.8 billion, according to the Seafood Exporters’ Association of India (SEAI). In 2009-10, they formed a miniscule percentage. Around 45 per cent of the shrimp exports is to the United States, followed by China, the European Union and Japan.

The number of shrimp hatcheries has, consequently, seen a multi-fold jump in terms of seed supply – from a mere 6 billion seeds (postlarvae) in 2009 to 100 billion now.

For Chacko’s company, production has jumped from 100 tonne to 1,100 tonne from 100 hectares. And his annual revenue has shot up from Rs 1.5-2 crore to Rs 27 crore.

Shrimp’s no small thing

• India’s shrimp production zoomed from around 100,000 tonnes in 2010 to 937,000 in 2021, according to the Society of Aquaculture Professionals
   
• India’s shrimp exports have recorded a jump of over 33 per cent in the last one year: from $3.9 billion in 2020-21 to $5.2 billion in 2021-22, according to the commerce ministry

“I started aquaculture in Gujarat in 1994, and till 2009, the crop was a gamble and the produce was very inconsistent because of diseases,” Chacko said. “Introducing the vannamei variety changed my fortunes, and also of our country’s.”

According to the Union commerce ministry, India’s shrimp exports have recorded a jump of over 33 per cent in the last one year – from $3.9 billion in 2020-21 to $5.2 billion in 2021-22.

“Though the sector was hit by Covid in 2020-21, we are seeing a 50 per cent growth, at least, in shrimp export compared to the pre-Covid level,” said Elias Sait, secretary general, SEAI.

This growth is majorly driven by states like Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, where large areas are available for farming.

According to data shared by the Chennai-based Society of Aquaculture Professionals, India’s total shrimp production zoomed from around 100,000 tonnes in 2010 to 937,000 in 2021.

It, however, took the industry some five years of lobbying, starting 2005 when India had a vannamei trial-run, to get the go-ahead from the government for its production.

Until 2009, Indian farmers were heavily dependent on the domestic variety called Black Tiger. Industry sources indicate that now around 90 per cent of the shrimp produced in India if of the vannamei variety, and a mere 10-odd per cent accounts for other varieties including Black Tiger.

“We would not have achieved this growth without vannamei,” said K Senthil Kumar, joint secretary of the Society of Aquaculture Professionals. “It requires a small area for production and has high resistance to diseases. It used to be an exotic item till 2009, until the government started giving licences to farmers to produce it.”

Farmers want to ramp up production. “We have the capacity to increase the production to 150 billion,” added Ravikumar Yellanki of Vaisakhi Bio-Marine, which is engaged in the hatcheries business.

The over-dependence on the export market, however, is a concern for Indian farmers. “In aquaculture shrimps, we are still producing only around 25 per cent of our potential. We need to increase that,” Kumar said. “The government should also help with policies that ensure that the domestic market picks up.”

At present, India is a low-density producer going by the thumb rule of 40 shrimps per square metre. So, there is the potential to produce bigger shrimps. With a specific pathogen-free Black Tiger coming to the Indian market, farmers have been slowly increasing the share of the domestic variant as well in the last two years.

“In Gujarat, I am seeing that a lot of farmers are increasing Black Tiger production with its pathogen-free variant in the market,” Chacko said. 

According to industry sources, Black Tiger, which weighs an average of 100 gm, is bigger than the vannamei variety, which is half that weight. Its cost of production is also higher, by 5 to 10 per cent, and its market price is Rs 30-100 more than vannamei’s. 

Producers also highlight that the most important advantage of Indian shrimps over others is its quality since farmers are hesitant to use banned antibiotics due to surprise quality checks by the government since this is an export-focused product.