October 11, 2013

Mexico to invest US$8 million to revive North-western aquaculture

In order to revive the aquaculture industry in north-western Mexico, the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (Sagarpa) is to invest MXN105 million (US$8 million).

The head of Sagarpa, Enrique Martinez y Martinez, announced the creation of a national advisory committee to help manage aquaculture and coordinate actions to support shrimp farmers. It also confirmed the construction of a laboratory and an experimental farm to give certainty to the sector.

This was stated by Sagarpa senior officer, Marcos Bucio Mujica, at the end of the videoconference-meeting with directors general and sub-delegates of the Mexican fishing sector. During this meeting, information was given on the national government investment of MXN15 million (US$1.1 million) to build a laboratory for larval production and MXN90 million (US$6.8 million) to support the aquaculture producers in the northwest area of the country affected by atypical shrimp mortality.

Sagarpa clarified that these resources are not part of the National Disaster Fund (Fonden) and are to immediately be granted without bureaucratic procedures to producers.

The new laboratory will help boost shrimp production in the northwest of Mexico, affected by the atypical death of this crustacean.

Bucio Mujica said the idea is that the state supports producers and researchers with the resources needed to implement the laboratory and to make an experimental farm that gradually validates the larvae that are resistant to disease.

The establishment of the national advisory committee is intended to: give strength to the value chain, from breeding to marketing; link actions with academic forces, research and higher organisms and experts at international level; and determine scientific actions to validate everything the committee implements.

The National Service of Health, Food Safety and Food Quality (Senasica) is to engage in issues related to aquaculture and to support laboratories to boost production of high genetic quality fingerlings given the new stocking phase that is expected for the first months next year.

The head of the National Commission of Aquaculture and Fisheries (Conapesca), Mario Aguilar Sanchez, emphasised that the country has a coastline of over 11,500 kilometres and 6,000 square kilometres of inland water.

For his part, the President of the State Committee on Aquaculture Health in Sinaloa (Cesasin), Alberto Soto Perez, welcomed the "clear attitude" of Sagarpa to producers, evidenced by "its moves to create a Directorate of Aquaculture in Conapesca."