White shrimp cultivation to encourage more exports

The production of newly cultivated Vannamei (white shrimp) will touch 30,000 tonnes this financial year, said Leena Nair, chairperson of the marine Products Export Development Authority (Mpeda).

India started Vannamei cultivation on commercial basis a year back and the total area under cultivation increased to 2,000 hectares currently. It is mainly cultivated in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Nair said this would further push up marine products export from India and the total export in this financial would cross the targeted $2.5 billion. In the first half of the current year, export crossed $1 billion, up 23 per cent against the exports in the same period last year.

The farming of Vannamei species is promising as India can produce large variety of shrimps than the traditional producers like Thailand, Indonesia, Ecuador and Vietnam. The lower price tag of the new species ($10-12 a kg) in the global market than the traditional Indian grades like black Tiger ($14 a kg) is advantageous on the export front especially to the EU, US and Japan. The drop in production in Vietnam and Ecuador gives India an advantage, she said. Production of Vannamei in Vietnam dropped to 40,000 tonnes from 160,000 tonnes in 2006.

She added that the US market is now promising to India as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico ha d caused a serious shortage for seafood items in the US market. So, exports to the US picked up in recent months which had been declining considerably for the last five years. Exports to the US market dipped in the past due to the heavy anti-dumping duty imposed in February 2005.