Venezuela shrimp output falls on lack of investment

A lack of investment in Venezuela's shrimp industry has led to a decline in production since 2007, according to Gilberto Gimenez, president of the Socialist Fisheries and Aquaculture Institute (INSOPESCA).

Venezuelan officials neither expanded the capacity of farming centres nor allocated resources to trawler maintenance, Gimenez said.

The industry also had to face declining export demand due to the global credit crisis, he said.

In 2006, the government launched a series of initiatives to boost shrimp production to 32,634 tonnes, of which 64 percent were from aquaculture. But shrimp production declined to 30,103 tonnes a year later.

Last year, Venezuela produced 23,493 tonnes of shrimp, of which 68 percent came from the aquaculture industry.

Gimenez said they have two plants in Merida and others in Falcon that were reclaimed and the idea is to put it into the hands of Venezuelans and boost production by 20 percent.

Meanwhile, Taura Syndrome Virus (TSV), which plagued Venezuela's shrimp industry in 2005, had spread among the farmed shrimp stock of Zulia state, causing a sharp drop in production of between 12,000 tonnes and 15,000 tonnes.

The loss represents nearly 50 percent of national production, and has affected several producing companies and at least four processing plants.