Happy Shrimp Farm, the brainchild of entrepreneurs Gilbert Curtessi and Sebastian "Bas" Greiner, uses a big greenhouse and recirculating raceways to raise western white shrimp (Penaeus vannamei) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It hopes to harvest its first crop during the summer of 2007. Located next to a power plant, the farm uses the plant's waste heat to warm its raceways.

On March 1, 2007, at "Aquaculture 2007" in San Antonio, Texas, USA, I interviewed Gilbert Curtessi, one of the owners of Happy Shrimp Farm.

Shrimp News: How, when and why did you get started in your venture?

Gilbert Curtessi: Three years ago, I was a researcher at the Port Authority of Rotterdam, along with my colleague and current partner, Sebastian "Bas" Greiner. We were doing research on industrial ecology, which means we were studying the efficiency of energy in relation to materials and resources. We looked at sustainable energy, biomass, hydrogen, windmills and solar energy--but it was low-caloric waste heat from industrial complexes, like power plants, that really got us excited.

We were tired of writing reports, we were done with putting everything down on paper, and we wanted to show people that we could do something with waste heat. We got a small bag of money to look into it. We talked with a refinery, a power plant, and an oil storage facility, and all of them wanted to do something that was eco-friendly with their waste heat. First, we thought about finfish aquaculture--redfish, snapper or trout--then the great taste and diverse markets for shrimp caught our fancy, so we decided to do a shrimp project.

We looked at shrimp farming around the world and heard all the horror stories about mangrove destruction, antibiotics, insecticides and pesticides. So I said to Bas, we're going to develop a "happy shrimp farm", a closed-system, environmentally friendly shrimp farm.

The professional aquaculturists at the University of Wageningen helped with information and technology--but we needed money to get a project started. We applied for grants from Holland's Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture Affairs--and got a million euros to start our farm! Later, through contacts at our bank, some private investors put money into the project. Next, we traveled around the world to look at shrimp farming. We went to China, Belize and the USA. We visited Shrimp Improvement Systems in Florida. Then, in 2006, we built our 5,000-square-meter, greenhouse-enclosed shrimp farm. We hope to produce 30 metric tons of shrimp a year.

Shrimp News: Your greenhouse doesn't look like the typical round-top greenhouse.

Gilbert Curtessi: We use the famous Dutch greenhouse technology. We are way ahead of the USA in greenhouse technology. We dropped the USA-style round-top greenhouses thirty years ago. We have the most efficient, productive, light-efficient, greenhouses in the world. They're computer controlled, climate controlled. Our greenhouse measures 100 meters by 50 meters. Its rigid structure allows us to hang a lot of equipment from the ceiling. I'll talk about how we plan to use that space later. First, I want to talk about the design of the farm. The water coming from the power plant is about 140 Fahrenheit, about 55 degrees Celsius. We run it through a heat exchanger and maintain the raceway water temperatures between 28 and 32 degrees Celsius. Our well brings up water that is about 28 parts per thousand salinity. Inside the greenhouse, we have 24 raceways, each holding about 300 cubic meters of water. They are 24 meters long, six or seven meters wide and 1.75 meters deep. We plan to produce from two to two and a half crops a year, harvesting about 30 tons of 20-gram animals, maybe a little bigger, a year. We don't use antibiotics, insecticides or pesticides. Our plan is to produce fresh shrimp for the local market. We're near a big market. Our motto is "make it where they eat it."

Shrimp News: Where do you get your feeds?

Gilbert Curtessi: We're looking at all the options that are available from the shrimp feed companies and will make a deal with one of them.

Shrimp News: Where will you get your postlarvae?

Gilbert Curtessi: We have tested postlarvae from Shrimp Improvement Systems, SeaHatch (Aruba), SyAqua and High Health Aquaculture, and now we are talking with OceanBoy, which has already sent us a batch of 20,000 postlarvae.

Shrimp News: When postlarvae arrive, how do you process them?

Gilbert Curtessi: First, we put them into quarantine tanks, where they are held for one week while we check for Taura, IHHN, whitespot--all the viruses. We check every shipment because we don't want any diseases in our system. After quarantine, they spend four to six weeks in the nursery tanks and then go into the raceways for about six months.

Shrimp News: What are you going to do with all that space above the raceways?

Gilbert Curtessi: We're going to grow salicornia, a salt tolerant vegetable, in trays above the shrimp raceways. Salicornia is very tasty and restuarants want it as a salad green. We call it green and blue, you figure out why!

Shrimp News: How do you plan to market the shrimp?

Gilbert Curtessi: We have an exclusive buyer who will sell it to high-end restaurants in the Netherlands.

Information: Gilbert Curtessi and Sebastian Greiner, Happy Shrimp Farm, Postbus 30086, 3001 DB Rotterdam, The Netherlands (phone 31-6-430-50426, email gilbert@happyshrimpfarm.nl, webpage www.happyshrimp.nl).

Sources: 1. Gilbert Curtessi, interview by Bob Rosenberry, Shrimp News International. San Antonio, Texas, USA. March 1, 2007.


Country Reports

India
Organic Shrimp

At "Indaqua 2007", a conference and trade show that was held in Chennai, India, in January 2007, a memorandum of understanding was signed between India's Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) and the Swiss Import Promotion Programme (SIPPO) on the adoption of organic aquaculture standards in India.

"The three-year project with SIPPO will help India cash in on this market by enforcing international standards and certification in the shrimp processing plants and then in farms and hatcheries." G. Mohankumar, MPEDA chairman, said that SIPPO would offer market linkages and ensure that premium prices flow down to the farmers. Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of State for Commerce, said that the big challenge is to "cut the cost of the certification process so that it is accessible to small farmers." The project will initially be implemented in the states of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal and then will be extended to other states in stages.

Source: Fish Farming International (http://www.fishfarminginternational.com). Editor, Kenny McCaffrey (kenny.mccaffrey@informa.com). India signs up for organic standards. Volume 34, Number 3, Page 10, March 2007.


Indonesia
Huge Farms May Unite

On April 25, 2007, PT Central Proteinaprima (CP Prima), the Indonesian shrimp farming unit of Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Group and one of the largest shrimp farms in the world with production of 35,000 metric tons of shrimp in 2004, announced that it would place a bid on PT Dipasena Citra Darmaja, possibly the largest shrimp farm in the world with a concession of 180,000 hectares. Before running into problems during the Asian financial crisis of 1997/98, Dipasena was one of the biggest shrimp producers in the world, with output amounting to some 19,854 tons in 1996. Both farms are located in southeast Sumatra.

Sources: 1. Seafood.com (an online, subscription-based, fisheries news service). Indonesia's CP Prima could become world's largest shrimp producer with takeover of Dipasena. Editor and Publisher, John Sackton (phone 781-861-1441, email jsackton@seafood.com). April 20, 2007. 2. Bob Rosenberry, Shrimp News International, April 20, 2007. 3. Jakarta Post. CD Prima planning to bid for Dipasena (http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailbusiness.asp?fileid=20070426.L01&irec=0). Andi Haswidi. April 26, 2007.


Indonesia
Requests Relaxed Antibiotic Regs

Jakarta...Indonesia says it will urge the European Union to relax its laws on antibiotics in imported shrimp. Martani Huseini, Director General of Processing and Marketing at Indonesia's Department of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, said, "Current regulations state that only one milliliter of antibiotic per ton of shrimp is allowable. This will cause a big burden for the traditional farmers in the country."

Huseini described the regulation as very unrealistic, pointing out that human doses of antibiotics are in the 750,000-milligram range.

His ministry will send a team of negotiators to Europe to demand relaxation of the antibiotic regulation. They also want to do away with the requirement that says shrimp farms must be free of rats, worms and birds.

Source: Seafood.com (an online, subscription-based, fisheries news service). Indonesia to urge EU to relax shrimp antibiotics residue rules. Ken Coons. Editor and Publisher, John Sackton (phone 781-861-1441, email jsackton@seafood.com). April 16, 2007.


Nigeria
Developing $200 Million Shrimp Farm

Sulalanka Nigeria, Ltd., has concluded plans to lead a consortium of Sri Lankan investors to develop a $200 million, zero-exchange, low-salinity (three parts per thousand), environmentally friendly, shrimp farm in southwestern Nigeria. According to Upali Karaunaratna, Sulalanka's managing director and CEO, the company will provide three-year loans to help the farmers get started. He said, "The stake of the company is to provide the farmers with the ponds, materials, pond lining, feeds, stocking, chemicals and adequate supervision from stocking to maturity." The company will also train the farmers and then purchase and market their crops as a branded product in international markets.

Source: Vanguard Online. Sri Lanka firms plans $200m shrimp farms in Nigeria (http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/business/april07/19042007/b719042007.html). April 19, 2007.


Thailand
Resurgence of Interest in Penaeus monodon

There appears to be a resurgence of interest in tiger shrimp (P. monodon) farming in Thailand. At a recent shrimp farmers' meeting in Chantaburi, in the eastern part of the country, several industry leaders suggested that monodon production could rise to 30% of total farmed shrimp production in 2007, up from about 10% in 2006. It remains to be seen how well that prediction will hold, but several producers reported good growth rates and profits from monodon in the second half of 2006.

Source: The Global Aquaculture Advocate (http://www.gaalliance.org). Editor, Darryl Jory (dejry2525@aol.com). Indian farmers consider white shrimp; fishmeal major issue. Daniel Fegan (dfegan@alltech.com). Volume 10, Issue 2, Page 61, March/April 2007.


United States
Alabama--Greene Prairie Aquafarm Sells to Whole Foods

Greene Prairie Aquafarm, an inland, low-salinity shrimp farm in Boligee, markets some of its production through organic grocer Whole Foods in Birmingham, Alabama, and Atlanta, Georgia. Whole Foods is making a push to feature more local produce and is seeking out vendors that meet its strict criteria: no preservatives, no artificial colors, no MSG and no hydrogenated oils.

"We met the criteria from the get-go without even knowing about it," said David Teichert-Coddington, a retired Auburn University professor and founder of Greene Prairie. He started the farm with fellow retired Auburn professor H.R. Schmittou. The two are raising Pacific white shrimp (Penaeus vannamei) in ponds fed by an ancient saltwater aquifer that is 650 feet below the surface. No chemicals or preservatives, like sulfites, are used during processing.

Teichert-Coddington contacted the Whole Food's Birmingham store, and told them the Greene Prairie story. Now, "It is by far our biggest contract," he said. "They are helping us expand our retail marketing...."

Information: David Teichert-Coddington and H.R. Schmittou, Greene Prairie Aquafarm, Box 10152, US Highway 43, Boligee, AL 35443 USA (phone 205-372-2844, cell 888-280-4043, email david@greeneprairieaquafarm.com, webpage www.GreenePrairieAquafarm.com).

Sources: 1. Al.com (The Birmingham News). Local goods a natural fit for Whole Foods/Alabama companies find shelf space at organic grocer (http://www.al.com/business/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/business/117662701512880.xml&coll=2). Sherri C. Goodman. April 15, 2007. 2. Greene Prairie Aquafarm's Webpage on April 19, 2007.


United States
Florida--OceanBoy Loses USDA Organic Status

OceanBoy Farms, a zero-exchange, low-salinity shrimp farm in central Florida, removed the USDA organic logo from its packaging in 2006 when its three-year permit expired. David McMahon, founder of OceanBoy, says when the new USDA organic standards are finalized, "I imagine we'll be the first ones certified."

In 2007, McMahon expects to produce about four million pounds of shrimp, which will be certified organic by Quality Certification Services in Jacksonville, Florida. In early March 2007, OceanBoy was sold out and will not have product on the market again until the summer 2007 harvest begins.

Source: SeaFood Business (www.seafoodbusiness.com). Editor, Fiona Robinson (frobinson@divcom.com). Organic matters. James Wright (jwright@divcom.com). V-26, N-4, P-26, April 2007.


United States
Washington, DC--FDA Seafood Inspections

According to the Associated Press, only 1.3% of imported seafood is inspected, down from 1.8% in 2003. In 2008, the inspection rate may drop to 1.1%. The USA Food and Drug Administration, the agency responsible for ensuring the safety of the nation's food supplies, lacks sufficient manpower to conduct more thorough inspections, food safety experts say. "FDA doesn't have enough resources or control over this situation," Mike Doyle, director of the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety, told the Associated Press.

"Inspections have a very important role, but they're not the solution. They are the verification," FDA Commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach said.

Source: Seafood Currents (an online newsletter from Seafood Business (www.seafoodbusiness.com). Report: U.S. food imports rarely inspected (http://divcom-seafood.informz.net/admin31/content/template.asp?sid=2298&ptid=133&brandid=3138&uid=752859429&mi=122927). April 16, 2007.


Vietnam
Environmental Improvement

Ho Chi Minh City's coastal district of Can Gio is preparing for a three-year project to minimize the impact of diseases on shrimp farming and to improve the quality of farmed shrimp through what is called Good Aquaculture Practices (GAPs). Specifically, the project aims to reduce the incidence of the whitespot and yellowhead viruses. The project will cover 40 hectares and 45 shrimp farms owned by 18 farmers in the Ly Nhon Commune.

The project's concept, mapped out by the Ministry of Fisheries, has been successfully applied in Binh Dai Commune in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre for the last several years.

Farmers will receive information on pond preparation, breeding, feeding, and the use and management of chemicals and bio-products for water treatment.

Shrimp diseases increase during the cooler months of the year, so the project will encourage farmers to raise shrimp during the warmest months, March through October, and crabs and fish during the cooler months.

The Can Gio region has some 6,000 hectares of shrimp ponds scattered across the Ly Nhon, An Thoi Dong, Binh Khanh and Tam Thon Hiep communes, all of which began converting to shrimp farming from rice farming in 1998. Shrimp farming has helped some poor families escape from poverty--and some rich people find it.

Source: Saigon Times. Can Gio pilots environment improvement project for shrimp (http://www.saigontimes.com.vn/daily/detail.asp?muc=1&Sobao=2920&SoTT=7). Dinh Dung. April 17, 2007.


Vietnam
Profits from Fry Production

To meet the increasing demand for juvenile shrimp, entrepreneurs have set up shrimp hatcheries in the southern province of Dong Thap (at the head of the Mekong River Delta). Nguyen Ngoc Huong, a fisherman from My An Hung B Commune in Lap Vo District, set up a shrimp hatchery in 2001. "The job requires that I apply special technologies and work diligently," says Huong. He is now a major supplier of postlarvae to shrimp farmers in the Delta and has recaptured his investment many times over.

Source: Vietnam News Agency. Dong Thap fisherman reel in large profits from fry, shrimp ponds (http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=02AGR140407). April 14, 2007.

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