Aquaculture production increased by more than 30% during the last financial year largely because of increased output in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, officials at the Marine Exports Product Development Authority (MPEDA) said. During 2009-10, total production touched 1,06,000 tonne and exports were also on the higher side, MPEDA officials said.
Production and exports of aquaculture products are likely to get a boost in the current fiscal with coastal farms are starting vanammei or white shrimps production in 1,170 ha, Anwar Hashim, national president of the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) said.
Production of coastal aquaculture came down during 2008-09 at 88,803 tonne with an estimated value of Rs 1,915 crore, MPEDA said. Shrimp production from coastal aquaculture was 75,997 tonne from the culture area of 108,000 hectares. Compared to the previous year, the decrease was about 28.4 % in production and 10.9 % in area.
Production of fresh-water prawn (scampi) during the year was 12,806 tonne from an area of 1,644 ha, showing a reduction of 53% in production and 63% in area utilisation. The decline in production from aquaculture was attributed to the global economic crisis, which resulted in reduction of international price for seafood products in general and shrimp in particular.
Competition from cheaper vanammei is severely affecting the profitability and production of the Indian black tiger shrimps, MPEDA sources said.
India produces mainly black tiger shrimp and processing facilities are running at only about 30% of their capacity. Export rivals in Asia, such as Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, have already introduced this variety and have seen their production rising. Black tiger shrimps have higher production costs and lower yields than vannamei. According to SEAI sources, the cost of production of vannamei is $2.29 per kilogram, which is only half the production cost for the Indian species.
Farmers can produce 20 tonne of small to medium vannamei per hectare, but only 2-3 tonne of large monodon per hectare. With shrimp diseases still ravaging black tiger farms, the survival rate of shrimp in most of farms is about 40%. The price of this farmed variety is at least 15% higher than vannamei in the global market. Vannamei?s survival rate is close to 95-98 % compared to the black tigers? 40%.
?We should be producing nearly 20,000 tonne of vanammei in the current fiscal as per the latest reports. This could help us stay competitive in the global market,? Hashim said. He said that the global market is extremely sensitive with good competition from other South Asian countries who have lesser production costs.
Indian aquaculture has demonstrated a six-and-a-half-fold growth over the last two decades, with freshwater aquaculture contributing over 95% of the total production. India utilises only about 40% of the available 2.36 million hectares of ponds and tanks for freshwater aquaculture and 13% of a total potential brackish water resource of 1.2 million hectares. In other words, there is room for both horizontal and vertical expansion of these sectors.