Shrimp industry gears up for a rebound

PHILIPPINES - In the 1980s, the shrimp and prawn industries in the Philippines were on the rise, thanks to the premium prices the homegrown black tiger prawn commanded in the international market. Business was too good traditional crops were abandoned in near-shore farmlands and converted into prawn ponds.

In the 1990s, the industry suffered a decline when diseases swept prawn farms from Luzon to the Visayas. It has not fully recovered since.

Survivors of the decade-long prawn pestilence are fighting back, determined to win lost markets by adopting the latest in prawn farm technology, commercializing other species side by side the tiger prawn, and adopting the best hatchery and feeding practices.

All of these will highlight the 5th National Shrimp Industry Congress slated in the middle of the year.

This early, leaders of the Philippine Shrimp Industry Association (Philshrimp) are already pinning their hopes on a new variety of white shrimp with the exotic scientific name of Litopeneaus vannamei, native to South America.

Source: Sun Star