November 12, 2010
Philippine government to revitalize prawn industry
The Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) is set to revitalize the local prawn industry as Japanese traders expressed renewed interest to source prawns from the country.
During the APEC Ministerial Meeting on Food Security in Japan held last month, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said Japanese businessmen are interested in sourcing Philippine prawns and a number of other local crops.
Likewise, Singapore also expressed interest in sourcing soft-shelled crops from the country, he added.
Alcala has since ordered Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) director Malcolm Sarmiento to draw up a programme to revitalize the local prawn industry.
Sarmiento said the country's prawn industry (specifically black tiger prawns) is slowly recovering from a near collapse in the mid-1990s due to disease from the green luminous bacteria.
From a former high production of up to 85,000 tonnes, prawn output dropped to as low as 15,000 tonnes. But slowly, Sarmiento said the local prawn industry has eradicated the green luminous bacteria and prawn production has now improved to around 35,000 tonnes.
Furthermore, Sarmiento said aside from prawn production, the country now is increasing its production of the previously prohibited vannamei shrimps which has now reached 15,000 tonnes.
Thus, he pointed out local prawn and shrimp production now account for almost 55,000 tonnes, enough to start servicing the export markets.
