August 17, 2004

 

Thai Shrimp Farmers Turn To Biotech Farming

 

Biotechnological farming is seen as a key to salvaging the THB70bn industry that has been hit hard over the past two years by contaminants in shipments and anti-dumping duties

 

Medical researchers have long hailed the potential health benefits for humans of probiotics and prebiotics in products such as yoghurt, which help promote beneficial bacteria in the digestive system.

 

Now shrimp farmers are being encouraged to pick up on the trend. The Fisheries Department is suggesting that they replace drugs and food supplements with probiotic microbes in shrimp feed in order to make shrimp free of hazardous chemical substances and reduce farm production costs.

 

Probiotics are foods that contain live bacteria that produce health-promoting properties while prebiotics are foods or nutrients used by specific bacteria. The latter can be added to the diet to increase the chances of these particular bacteria growing and thriving in the intestine.

 

"We called the method biotechnological farming. The microbes we used are baccillus and lactobacillus that are cultured locally in the form of liquid and tablets and cost less than imported ones," said Siri Tookwinas, an expert on shrimp culture with the Fisheries Department.

 

Mr Siri said probiotics had been used widely in shrimp farming in many countries in the hope that it could make aquaculture products free of contaminants and chemicals that might be harmful to consumers' health.

 

Biotechnological farming is being promoted in earnest after the 70-billion-baht local shrimp industry has been hard hit for two years following the rejection by the European Union of shipments containing chloramphenicol, a prohibited class of chemical.

 

Though the number of biotechnological farms today is still low, at fewer than 2,000 or 10% of more than 20,000 shrimp farms in Thailand, the official is optimistic that many more farmers will adopt the method in the near future.

 

Heavy promotion will help them realise the benefits of using probiotics instead of antibiotic drugs to kill diseases. The use of chloramphenicol, and 15 other chemicals, by shrimp farms has been banned since early this year.

 

Pisit Ohmpornnuwat, president of C.P.Merchandising Co, a subsidiary of CPF, said that probiotic farming was one way to tap the growing demand for food safety among buying countries.

 

The company, which earned around six billion baht from exporting 14,000 tonnes of shrimp last year, started to introduce probiotic farming to its 50 shrimp farms, mainly in the eastern and southern regions, three years ago.

 

Sanir Memongkolkuldilok, a vice-president in charge of CPF's aquaculture business, said that under the method, different microbes were put in the pond to prevent diseases caused by bacteria and some were mixed in shrimp feed.

 

"Probiotic farming is a prevention programme that suits both black tiger shrimp and vannamei shrimp, better known as white shrimp by local farmers," he said.

 

All microbes are produced by the firm and add about 5-10% to the production cost. But Mr Sanir said the extra cost was worthwhile when taking into account the high survival rate of about 70% to 80%. The programme has been developed for seven years and was now certified by the Fisheries Department including foreign buyers operating in Thailand such as British retail chain, Tesco.

 

Mr Pisit said many world-class retailers were emphasising food safety very heavily. They have even sent teams to test water in the ponds to see whether it is safe.

 

"They will be more satisfied buying food in which the ingredients could be traced back as far as feed. Therefore, traceability is quite important for shrimp producers today," he said.

 

CPF chief executive officer Adirek Sripratak believes that the farming could make Thai shrimp more competitive globally, even in the United States where Thai shrimp now face anti-dumping duties ranging from 5.56% to 10.25%.

 

But some industry analysts expect the export market to become stiffer. Thai shrimp will compete hard with products from China and Vietnam in markets such as Japan as the US has imposed high dumping duties for shrimp imports from these two countries, from 7.6% to 112% for China and 12.11% to 93.13% for Vietnam.