The Department of Agriculture (DA) has lifted the ban on the
culture and importation of the Peneaus vannamei shrimp for commercial purposes
with an expected doubling of the country’s shrimp production in two to three
years.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap signed Fisheries
Administrative Order No. 225 series of 2007 to amend FAO NO. 207 after field
verification trials and positive reports on the successful conduct of breeding
and grow-out experiments of the Pacific white shrimp by the Bureau of Fisheries
and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).
BFAR Director Malcolm Sarmiento Jr. said the country’s
current shrimp production of 37,000 metric tons could reach 70,000 in two to
three years with the introduction of the P. vannamei shrimp.
"Once we start accrediting hatcheries, we can start importing
the brood stocks… This variety grows twice as fast as the local variety and
costs half at around P250 per kilo," Sarmiento said, noting that with the
expected boost in shrimp production, the thrust will be to aim for exports to
countries in Europe and the United States.
Yap added that the introduction of the P. vannamei shrimp
could pull up the value of the country’s shrimp from the current P1 billion
annually to P4 billion.
"We expect the introduction of P. vannamei into our local
fisheries sector to boost our ailing shrimp industry and bring it back to its
glory days when production reached a high of 94,000 MT in 1994 alone," Yap said.
FAO No. 207 was issued in 2001 to prohibit the entry of the
pacific white shrimp stocks into the Philippines to protect the local sugpo or
black tiger prawn from the dreaded Taura virus that nearly wiped out shrimp
farms in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand that time.
Before the recent DA decision, the culture of P. vannamei was
allowed only for scientific research.
The trials started in August 2004 to explore possible
re-entry of the exotic species due to clamor by groups of shrimp growers to help
revive the industry, with the reports citing a scientific breakthrough in the
production of specific pathogen-free (SPF) P. vannamei.
Sarmiento said the Pacific white shrimp brood stocks used in
the trials were imported from Florida, USA in 2005. These stocks were certified
as SPF strain, meaning they did not carry at least six shrimp viruses that can
affect the local sugpo.
The breeding were done at the BFAR research facility in
Bonuan, Dagupan City while the experimental propagations or grow-outs were
carried by government-accredited commercial shrimp farmers nationwide.
Sarmiento said the BFAR subsequently gave the brood stocks a clean bill of
health after the University of Arizona, which runs the recognized reference
diagnostic laboratory of the US shrimp consortium, certified the breeders
disease-free.
