Honduras' shrimp sector losses million dollar

Honduran shrimp producers lost more than HNL 30 million (US$1.59 million) due to strong rains brought by the tropical storm Agatha.

''There is widespread concern over the possible effect the substantial rain could have on the diminution of the salt concentration in the lagoons, where shrimp is produced,'' said the executive director of the Honduran Council of the Private Company, (COHEP) Benjamin Bogran.

"The greatest damage is to small and mid-sized retailers,'' mainly those of the capital markets, since for those families it represents ''their only sustenance,'' said the executive director.

The shrimp farmers manage a production area of 14,500 hectares cultivated in the South, but recent rains have blocked access to a large number of them.

For Marco Polo Micheletti, executive director of the National Aquaculturists Association of Honduras (ANDAH), the situation is serious due to the destruction of access roads and because many farms initiate their harvests at this time of year.

"Thus far, farms cannot be accessed, and we know that the government must prioritise needs, for that reason we are seeing how to come out of this,'' he indicated.

Shrimp farming is an activity of great socioeconomic importance in the country, due to the important development witnessed since its beginnings in the decade of the 1980s. The production went from just 792 tonnes in 1986 to almost 22,000 tonnes in 2008.