September 22, 2010

Honduran aquaculture loses US$12.4 million in exports

The Honduran aquaculture sector has made an estimated loss of about US$12.4 million this winter, due to their inability to export five million pounds of shrimp, as a result of adverse weather conditions.

Heavy rains, the overflow of the rivers Choluteca and Sampile and floods in important productive areas of the country greatly damaged shrimp producers in Honduras, mainly in the south.

According to the businessman Carlos Lara, the Choluteca River has flooded many of the low-lying areas where shrimp farms are located, which are now impossible to access by road to harvest and export shrimp to European and US markets.

Lara urged the government to invest in the construction of drainage channels, which have been planned for a long time as well as building some containment levees in the town of Marcovia.

He pointed out that the Congress earmarked a significant amount of resources to protect low-lying areas of the Ulua River in the northern part of the country.

Last June, heavy rains that accompanied the Agatha Tropical Storm caused shrimp producers to make losses estimated at more than HNL30 million (US$1.5 million).