© CP Foods
So suggests Robins McIntosh, executive vice-president at Charoen Pokphand (CP) Foods – who has been astonished by the performance of the company’s improved monodon line.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen black tiger do this fantastic,” he says. “In southern Thailand, this year’s results have been absolutely amazing. In 100 days 35 grams, in 145 days, they’re reaching 65 grams and those cultured 200 days reaching 85 grams. It’s so much faster growth than in the past.”
In trials, the strain has shown growth rates that rival – or in some cases surpass – vannamei. This is all the more impressive given that they are maintaining resilience against some of the pathogens that plague their Pacific cousins.
“White spot will affect black tiger,” McIntosh admits, “but we didn’t see any white spot effect the ponds in southern Thailand. Vibrio doesn’t affect it. EHP doesn’t affect it. The other viral diseases don’t seem to impact it. So you get high survivals, even in areas where white shrimp were failing.”
The combination of faster growth, higher survival and the ability to stock at densities of up to 90 per metre square has led to some impressive figures. While traditional monodon farming often struggled to reach 6–7 tonnes per hectare, McIntosh says the new line stocked at 90/m2 and partial harvested twice before a final harvest is delivering far beyond expectations.
“These ponds are coming in with 15 tonnes per hectare of the 65 g shrimp and an amazing survival over 80 percent, with FCR below 1.7,” he explains.
Such performance is driving renewed excitement among farmers.
“I haven’t heard good stories like this in a long time,” McIntosh says. “With white shrimp, that rapid improvement curve ended years ago – it’s been more of a slug-fest in recent years. But with black tiger, you can see year-to-year improvement in growth performance that is not impacting survival. It’s fantastic. We’re on that rapid part of the growth improvement right now.”
© CP Foods
Market bottlenecks
Despite encouraging farming results, demand remains a major challenge for black tiger.
“The biggest issue right now is not the performance of culture, it’s finding markets,” McIntosh cautions.
“Some of it is sold inside [Thailand], some of the bigger ones can be sold to China, but there’s not a big market,” he explains. “So without the export market, farmers are hesitant about stocking.”
Nevertheless, production is already ramping up in McIntosh’s adopted homeland.
“Thailand tells me they’ll do 30,000 tonnes this year – we were doing 15,000 tonnes, but they think if we can develop more markets, it can go to 50,000 or 60,000 tonnes,” he notes.
“And, as more people notice that farmers can do this well, if a market is made, black tiger will expand,” he predicts.
It’s a similar story in India, China and Malaysia, where disease pressures with white shrimp have often driven farmers back to monodon, but market access is limited.
“India goes to black tiger when they can’t grow white shrimp,” McIntosh observes. “And if there was a more open market, you’d find a lot more black tiger in India.”
McIntosh is hopeful that someday soon CP will be able to introduce their black tiger into India, as they have successfully stimulated the Chinese and Malaysian monodon markets.
“My biggest regret really is not being able to sell our black tiger there, because I think it would compete very well,” he says. “India is made for our shrimp. But the permit’s just not there.”
Beyond Thailand and India, black tiger culture is also expanding elsewhere in Asia. “China is doing very well – they’re at 180,000 tonnes or more,” McIntosh says.
“They go into areas with the white shrimp that are failing, and they’re finding these old failed white shrimp ponds grow fantastic monodon,” he adds. “So they convert them – that’s the same story in India and China.”
Meanwhile he points to Malaysia, where “they’ve gone from being 90 percent white shrimp to almost 50–50 now.”
“With black tiger, we’re still in that exciting stage where you can see performance improve year to year. Farmers can feel it,” he adds.
The resistance to disease also works in monodon’s favour, making the species well suited to parts of Asia where vibrio and EHP have forced ponds to be mothballed.
“The vibrio don’t affect the monodon to the same extent, the EHP doesn’t affect it and other viral diseases don’t seem to impact it. So you get high survivals,” McIntosh notes.
However, creating new domestic and export markets, McIntosh argues, is critical.
“Farmers [in Thailand] have shown they can do 30,000 tonnes already. If markets develop, they can double that quickly,” he predicts.
With genetics, management and farmer enthusiasm aligning – it’s now a question of growing the market. A problem that the black tiger shares with the white shrimp.
