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The Philippines may regain its status as one of the
world’s top exporters of shrimps following the large-scale
production of Peneaus vannamei or Pacific white shrimp, Department
of Agriculture (DA) officials said.
The department also predicts that
shrimp production in the country may double in five years.
“Because vannamei matures
faster, requires less production inputs and has strong resistance to
diseases, it is projected that the country will be able to achieve
an unprecedented shrimp production volume in excess of 100,000
metric tons (MT) in five years,” said Agriculture Undersecretary
Jesus Emmanuel Paras.
Paras said volume is more than
double the current production of some 30,000 MT of white shrimps and
24,000 MT of prawns or sugpo annually.
Paras, who attended the recent
Philippine Shrimp Congress Inc. that was hosted by Philippine Shrimp
Inc. in Bacolod City, said the move by Agriculture Secretary Arthur
Yap last year to lift the ban on the importation and culture of
Pacific white shrimp into the country, as recommended by the Bureau
of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), could spell speedy
rebound for the industry.
The Agriculture department said
60 percent of the country’s shrimp production goes to domestic
markets while the remaining volume is exported to Japan, Korea, US,
Canada and Guam.
BFAR Director Malcolm Sar-miento
said that only one-and-a-half years after the government allowed the
importation of P. vannamei broodstocks, the Bureau has already
accredited seven maturation, breeding and larval rearing hatcheries
in strategic locations in the country and certified a total of 38
grow-out farms, or around 497 hectares production area.
“Among our fishery products,
shrimps and prawns make up the second highest foreign exchange
earner, bringing in an average of S$100 million a year,” the DA
said in a statement.
Sarmiento further said that the
Philippines is recognized worldwide as the only shrimp-producing
country that do not use antibiotics in the control and prevention of
diseases.
Meanwhile, stakeholders in the
shrimp industry said lifting the ban on Pacific white shrimp may
lower the prices of this prime commodity to as low as P150 to P200 a
kilo in the local market.
The Philippines, which previously
ranked No. 3 as the world’s top shrimp exporter, slid to 10th
place in 2003 after being overtaken by Mexico, Brazil, Vietnam and
Bangladesh. The other big producers are Thailand, China, India,
Indonesia and Ecuador.
--Ira Karen Apanay
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