March 22, 2005

Indian shrimp export ravaged by tsunami

Although April is already around the corner, shrimp cultivation in India's Tamil Nadu has yet to begin due to the tsunami disaster which hit late last year.

The cultivation normally starts by January or latest February when the fishermen bring in the "Mother Prawns" called brood stock from the sea for breeding.

Tamil Nadu's shrimp exports mainly to the US, Europe and Japan are valued at Rs 4,550 crore. This accounts for 70 percent of India's total seafood exports which is worth Rs 6,500 crore. This year, however, Mr. A J Tharakan, president, Seafood Exporters Association of India felt that seafood exports may drop by 15 per cent due to the effect of tsunami.

The tsunami is said to have ruined and damaged around 7,000 mechanized boats, 30,000 countries craft as well as destroyed approximate 32,000 fishing nets.

Cultivation of shrimps required care similar to that of paddy and the Shrimps require clean sea water to survice. This was all damaged due to debri flowing into the water due to Tsunami.

The phases for Shrimp cultivation starts with the hatcheries, it is then sent to aquaculture farms and then finally to processing plant. The cost of putting a hatchery is between 1 to 3 crores and very few exports in India have all these 3 process in place.

The process starts with the bringing of the mother prawns from sea which are then sent to the hatcheries for breeding. The eggs take approximate 14 to 16 hours to hatch into larva. Moderate temperature is required and monitored for this, which ranges from 28 degree Celsius and 32 degree Celsius.

As per National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) statistics, Tamil Nadu has 73 hatcheries which is capable or producing 3,000 million post-larvae. The larvae are transferred in water bags and sent to aquaculture ponds.

The average shrimp farm area is less than five acres. In order for the larva to adjust in the new environment, they are kept on small ponds for a week before moving into larger ones. The shrimps are carefully monitored in these ponds and fed with artificial fishmeal.