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Our Bureau

Asked also to try producing black tiger shrimp bigger than 25 g a piece

Chennai , March 3

Cultivating larger sizes of black tiger shrimps, exporting value-added products that fetch better margins and expanding the domestic market should be part of the country's strategy to develop shrimp industry, according to, Mr P.K. Ramachandran, President, The Waterbase Ltd.

Addressing the annual meeting of the Society of Aquaculture Professionals on Friday, he said India would have to identify its niche in shrimp production.

Shrimp farming centres in South-East Asia, India and in Latin America all focus on the markets in the US, Europe or Japan. China, another major producer, consumes most of its production and could emerge an importer.

Stagnant output

In South-East Asia, production is growing with Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia producing around 3,00,000 tonnes of shrimps a year, while it has stagnated at around 1,00,000 tonnes a year in India.

In recent years, the South-East has shifted to cultivating low-cost and smaller-size vannamei shrimps because of disease problems in black tiger shrimps.

Thailand and the Latin American countries are concentrating on vannamei species. Vietnam and Indonesia produce both vannamei and black tiger. So the competition is stiff in the smaller grades of shrimps (less than 20g a shrimp). India has the choice to be a world leader in producing black tiger shrimps of larger sizes - bigger than 25 g a piece.

India should also look at moving away from export of raw material, block-frozen shrimp, and look at value-added products, he said.

These were in greater demand in all the developed markets including Japan, he said.

Mr S. Santhanakrishnan, President, Society of Aquaculture Professionals, said that quality and farm management would be key issues in shrimp culture. Though there are opportunities in diversification of farmed species and exploring alternative species, the industry is founded on black tiger cultivation. India would have to increase it efficiency of operations, he said.

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