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Delay and procedural hurdles in import of artemia are affecting the shrimp hatcheries in East Godavari and the rest of Andhra Pradesh and the authorities should take immediate steps to address the issue, according to L. Satya Narain alias Tikkoo, president of All-India Shrimp Hatcheries' Association.
He said here on Monday that live feeds played an important role in the successful production of shrimp larvae and "algae and artemia are the two main live feeds used by shrimp hatcheries world wide. Algae and artemia are essential for the production of quality post larvae and the quality of PL enables successful production of shrimps."
He said India was one of the largest users of artemia for shrimp larval production. Artemia is sourced from the Great Salt Lakes of USA and is imported into India. One of the main reasons for the strong Post Larvae produced by Indian shrimp hatcheries is the optimum use of artemia naupli in larval feeding, he said.
In general, he said, shrimp hatcheries in India use 5 kg of artemia cysts to produce one million post larvae of the marine shrimp L. vannamei. At present, there is a delay in the clearance of artemia imported from USA to India for a variety of reasons. The continued delay has resulted in the absence of artemia with most of the importers. The hatcheries find it difficult to run the production without artemia.
With limited supplies coupled with the reduced production this year from the GSL, the price for artemia cysts is expected to go high further for the stocks available with a few importers. It will increase the cost of production in hatcheries. Secondly, the hatcheries might be forced to reduce the usage of artemia which might affect the survival and quality of post larvae, he said.
If the situation continues for a while, the hatcheries have to shut down their production facilities. Summer is the main stocking season for grow-outs in India.
He said the impact would be so severe that entire shrimp aquaculture industry would come to a stand still. "At this stage, it is difficult for the industry to reach the shrimp production levels of last year. The situation is very alarming and immediate intervention by officials is the need of the hour," he added.
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