Asia
New Environmental Regulations
Reuters reports: In September 2006, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations will consider the adoption of a new set of tough standards for protecting the environment from shrimp farming.
The Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA), which represents 17 countries across Asia, encouraged by a group of United Nations agencies and the World Bank, has prepared a set of eight principles for responsible shrimp farming.
If adopted by FAO, the guidelines would be incorporated in the national shrimp farming policies of the 17 member countries of NACA.
The principles address issues ranging from farm location, design and construction to questions of feeding, health and nutrition. They also set down standards for managing mangroves, handling food safety issues and sharing a shrimp farm’s benefits with surrounding communities.
Stricter regulation is crucial because governments often overlook the true environmental costs of shrimp farms, which sometimes destroy mangroves and rip apart the livelihoods of poor coastal communities.
For a copy of the principles, go to http://www.enaca.org/uploads/international-shrimp-principles-06.pdf.
Source: Reuters Alert Net. New shrimp farm rules aim to save Asian mangroves (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KLR307792.htm). Clarence Fernandez. August 22, 2006.
Australia
What does shrimp farming look like in Australia?
To find out, go to the website of the Australian Prawn Farmers Association (http://www.apfa.com.au). On the home page, click on "Farm Tour" to view about a dozen pictures that show you shrimp hatcheries, farms, processing plants and markets in Australia. Try some of the links, like "About Us" and "Research and Development", to learn more about up-side-down shrimp.
Information: Scott Walter, Executive Officer, Australian Prawn Farmers Association, Level 6, 183 North Quay, P.O. Box 12009, Brisbane, QLD 4003, Australia (phone 07-3837-4777, email info@apfa.com.au, webpage http://www.apfa.com.au).
Source: Australian Prawn Farmers Association Website on August 14, 2006.
Bangladesh
Installing Equipment to Test for Antibiotics
On July 25, 2006, the Bangladesh Fisheries Department and the Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA) signed a memorandum of understanding on the procurement, installation and maintenance of an LC/MS/MS machine to test for antibiotic residues in farmed shrimp. LC/MS/MS (liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry) uses a biochemical analysis to detect antibiotics. BFFEA will purchase the machine and install it at the Fisheries Department in Dhaka. Currently, shrimp are sent to Singapore for tests.
The machine will be installed in September 2006. Kazi Belayer Hossain, vice-president of Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association said BFFEA had opened a letter of credit with the Khulna branch of Al-Arafah Bank to make the payment. The Directorate of Fisheries will purchase the machine from Waters Corporation in the USA. Applied Biosystems, also in the USA, was the runner up.
Information on Waters Corporation: 1. USA--Waters Corporation, 34 Maple Street, Milford Massachusetts 01757 USA (phone 800-252-4752, fax 508-872-1990, webpage http://www.waters.com/WatersDivision/ContentD.asp?watersit=JDRS-5NEQ9R). 2. European Union--Waters S.A.S., BP 608, 78056 Saint-Quentin En Yvelines Cedex, France (33-1-3048-7200, fax 33-1-3048-7201, webpage http://www.waters.com/WatersDivision/ContentD.asp?watersit=JDRS-5NEQ9R). 3. Asia--Waters Asia Limited, 396 Alexandra Road #04-06, BP Tower, Singapore 119954 (phone 65-6278-7997, fax 65-6278-7557, webpage http://www.waters.com/WatersDivision/ContentD.asp?watersit=JDRS-5NEQ9R).
Information on Applied Biosystems: Applied Biosystems, 850 Lincoln Centre Drive, Foster City, CA 94404 USA (phone 800-327-3002, fax 650-638-5884, webpage http://www.appliedbiosystems.com).
Sources: 1. Email to Shrimp News International. Subject: from BFFEA, Dhaka. From: Bffea@dhaka.net. July 29, 2006. 2. The Daily Star. Business: Bacteria-detecting machine to prompt higher growth (http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/08/13/d60813050162.htm). August 13, 2006. 3. The New Nation. Shrimp testing machine: Technical body report ignored (http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_29916.shtml). Rafiqul Islam Azad. August 13, 2006.
Bangladesh
10 Hatcheries Closed
At least ten shrimp hatcheries around Cox’s Bazar have shut down because of an acute shortage of wild broodstock. Everyone seems to agree that the shortage was caused by overfishing the wild stocks of gravid females, most of which have viruses that get passed on to their larvae, resulting in low pond survivals. Cox’s Bazar Shrimp Hatchery Owners Association officials said 10 out of 58 hatcheries along the coast are closed because of the shortage. The rest of the hatcheries are in pitiable condition and some of them may close.
Source: The Daily Star. National: 10 shrimp hatcheries closed in Cox’s Bazar/Indiscriminate catching of mother shrimp blamed (http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/08/17/d608170701107.htm). Muazzem Hossain Shakil. August 17, 2006.
India
Japan Requires Inspections
All shipments of farmed shrimp to Japan must be tested for antibiotics and insecticides. India’s Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) has published a list of eight laboratories that are certified to do the tests. MPEDA has also come out with a list of agriculture pesticides, herbicides and antibiotics that the labs will be checking for. The critical levels for all the compounds were set by Japanese authorities.
The estimated production of shrimp and prawns in India’s last fiscal year was 185,990 metric tons; the year before that it was 164,390 tons.
Source: The Financial Express. Commodity Watch: Shrimp consignments to Japan to carry lab reports (http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=137252). Ajayan. August 14, 2006.
Indonesia
Infectious Myonecrosis
Infectious myonecrosis (IMNV) is a shrimp viral disease that first affected farmed Penaeus vannamei in Brazil. Now it has been confirmed in P. vannamei in Indonesia.
Findings:
1. IMNV was suspected in the Situbondo District of East Java Province in May 2006.
2. Species: P. vannamei, 60-to-80-day-old juveniles.
3. Clinical signs: Red color in the abdominal segment, myonecrosis (dying muscle tissue) with white discoloration of the affected muscle.
4. Diagnosis: Conducted at and confirmed by the Aquaculture Pathology Lab at the University of Arizona (Dr. Lightner, USA).
5. The Government of Indonesia is conducting surveillance for IMNV in East Java, Bali and West Nusa Tenggara.
6. All countries have been asked to increase surveillance and collect information on any possible occurrence of IMNV.
Source: Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific Webpage. Health: IMNV Found in Asia-Pacific (http://www.enaca.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=825). Posted by Simon Wilkinson. August 21, 2006.
Iran
Production
Tehran...On August 12, 2006, the head of the Iranian Fisheries Organization estimated that the production of farmed shrimp from southern Iran would be 7,000 tons in 2006, from approximately 2,500 hectares of ponds. Next year, 7,000 hectares may be in production. Bushehr Province, at the northern end of the Persian Gulf, formerly the leading producer of farmed shrimp in Iran, was hit hard by the whitespot virus in 2005 and has not recovered. Iran exports most of its farmed shrimp to the European Union and the states around the Persian Gulf and along the Oman Sea.
Source: MehrNews.com. Economic news in brief: Annual shrimp production in south to hit 7,000 tons (http://www.mehrnews.ir/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=365844). August 12, 2006.
Iran
Artemia Farming
According to a report from Iran’s Artemia Research Center, private-sector Artemia farming began two months ago in the northwestern city of Orumieh, West Azarbaijan Province, in six concrete tanks with a total area of 720 square meters. Currently, Iran imports about 330 tons of Artemia a year, valued at around $50 million.
Source: Iran Mania. Artemia project will save $50m: Iranian official (http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=45092&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs). August 17, 2006.
Philippines
Philip Cruz
Philip Cruz, president of Cruz Aquaculture Corp, hopes the national government approves the farming of Penaeus vannamei before the end of the year. He says there is an experimental shrimp farm in Dagupan City, Pangasinan, that’s ready to go. Cruz says the commercialization of vannamei will inspire a "renaissance in our aquaculture industry."
Source: Mindanao Times. Philippines must revive shrimp industry: expert (http://www.mindanaotimes.com.ph/story.php?id=13645). Carmelito Q. Francisco. August 16, 2006.
Thailand
Alleged JonBenet Murderer Eats Farmed Shrimp, Probably
According to the Associated Press (Sunday, August 20, 2006): Aboard his Thai Airways flight to Los Angeles, John Mark Karr, the suspect in the death of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, sipped champagne and ate shrimp. He started dinner with a pate, then had a green salad with walnut dressing. The main course was "fried king prawns" [probably the giant tiger shrimp, Penaeus monodon, or maybe the freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, or maybe the western white shrimp, P. vannamei] with steamed rice and broccoli. Karr washed the shrimp down with a glass of French chardonnay.
Source: StarTribune.net. JonBenet Murder Suspect Headed to U.S. (http://www.casperstartribune.net/ap/headlines/d8jk9nog0.txt). Jocelyn Gecker (The Associated Press). August 20, 2006.
United States
Florida--the Southern Shrimp Alliance
In July 2006, the Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA), which, in 2004, won a dumping case against shrimp exporters in six countries, reached settlements with 104 foreign exporters under which both sides agreed to drop requests for annual administrative reviews of the duties, a process that could have led to changes in the dumping duties and more paperwork, more legal fees and more wasted money. The settlement involves cash payments to SSA that will be used for two purposes: to fund a lobbying effort aimed at making sure USA officials increase testing of imported shrimp for antibiotics, and to lobby for increased monitoring of transshipments from dumping countries to non-dumping countries.
SSA Spokeswoman Deborah Long said reports that the settlement amount was equal to one or two percent of the exporters’ annual trade are inaccurate. She noted that each settlement was different and that some were based on annual trade while others were flat sums. Long declined to specify how much SSA received from the exporters, but sources indicated the amount was somewhere in the neighborhood of a few million dollars.
Information: Deborah Long, Southern Shrimp Alliance, 1078 Island Avenue, Tarpon Springs, FL 34689 USA (phone 727-934-5090, fax 727-934-5362, webpage http://www.shrimpalliance.com/index.htm).
Source: Fish-N-Clips (a National Fisheries Institute daily news clipping service that provides a snapshot of the media coverage in the seafood industry). U.S. Shrimp Settlement to Fund Lobbying for Import Monitoring. Editor, Geraldine Thomas (phone 703-752-8888, email gthomas@nfi.org, webpage http://www.nfi.org). August 14, 2006.
United States
Mississippi--Gulf Coast Research Lab
At a groundbreaking ceremony on August 17, 2006, the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL, part of the University of South Mississippi’s Coastal Science Department) began construction of a 10,600-square-foot, $3.5 million, marine aquaculture visitors’ center that will open in April 2007. Six more buildings will follow. GCRL works with marine fish and also plays a pivotal roll in the USA Marine Shrimp Farming Program through its research on shrimp diseases and shrimp production systems.
The lab is raising its first crop of shrimp since Hurricane Katrina (August 29, 2005), which flooded some of the shrimp facilities, but did little permanent damage. At 16 weeks, the shrimp are ready to be harvested and sold to a commercial processor or restaurant.
Sources: 1. GulfLive.com. Cochran joins celebration of Gulf Coast lab expansion (http://www.gulflive.com/news/mississippipress/index.ssf?/base/news/1155896171187390.xml). Natalie Chandler (phone 228-934-1435, email nchandler@themississippipress.com). August 18, 2006. 2. WILOX.com. Research Lab Expanding At Cedar Point (http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=5295936&nav=6DJI). Marcia Hill. August 17, 2006. 3. Bob Rosenberry, Shrimp News International, August 19, 2006.
Unites States
Washington, DC--Free Newsletter
Want to get on the mailing list for a free e-newsletter that promotes the consumption of shrimp? Go to EatShrimp.com (http://www.eatshrimp.com/newsletter/newsletter-manage.cfm), fill in your name and email address, and hit "subscribe". That’s it, you’re done. If you don’t like the newsletter, it’s just as easy to "unsubscribe" at the same address. The newsletter is sponsored by The Shrimp Council, which represents the following companies that import and distribute shrimp in the United States:
Bahama Breeze
Central Seaway Company, Inc.
Eastern Fish Company, Inc.
Empress International, Ltd.
Expack Seafood, Inc.
Fishking Processors, Inc.
H & N Foods International
Harbor Seafood, Inc.
High Liner Foods (USA), Inc.
Icelandic USA, Inc.
King & Prince Seafood Corporation
Mazzetta Company, LLC, Seamazz brand
Morey’s Seafood International, LLC
Ocean Cuisine International
Ocean Garden Products, Inc.
Olive Garden
Red Lobster
RICH-SEAPAK Corporation
Sea Port Products Corporation
Smokey Bones Barbeque and Grill
Tai Foong U.S.A., Inc.
Tampa Maid Foods, Inc.
Information: The Shrimp Council, 7918 Jones Branch Drive, Suite 700 McLean, VA 22102 USA (phone 703-752-8880, email info@eatshrimp.com, webpage http://www.eatshrimp.com/index.cfm).
Source: EatShrimp.com (http://www.eatshrimp.com/index.cfm). August 18, 2006.
United States
Washington, DC--Dumping
Greg Rushford, editor and publisher of the Rushford Report, a monthly newsletter on trade politics, discusses (in Seafood Business) how Department of Commerce officials abused their power and slapped an 80 percent tariff on imports of shrimp from five exporters in China. Rushford says the seafood industry has every right to regard the dumping laws as terrible:
For anyone who has ever seen shrimp displayed in a supermarket aisle, USA Judge Timothy Stanceu’s 54-page opinion in Allied Pacific Food, et. al. versus the United States, issued on June 12, 2006, is easy to grasp. The count size of shrimp is the key determinant of price; big shrimp are more expensive than little shrimp. Yet when Commerce officials decided in 2004 to slap 80 percent dumping duties on five Chinese shrimp exporters, it repeatedly refused requests to look at the low prices China was getting for its small shrimp. The Court of International Trade judge found that the bureaucrats "went to some length to develop a complicated procedure for estimating count-size-specific shrimp values based on the single value of $5.97 per kilogram," an obviously artificial number.
Everyone in the seafood industry who has been targeted in a dumping case knows the game: The bureaucrats jigger the numbers.... Usually, they get away with it, unless some judge finds the officials have defied logic, as happened in the shrimp case.
Because Commerce’s machinations "were unsupported by substantial evidence on the record and were otherwise contrary to law," the judge sent the case back to Commerce with instructions to try to come up with more accurate, that is, honest numbers by this fall.
...These antidumping laws have a fishy smell to them that does little to promote respect for the rule of law.
Source: SeaFood Business (www.seafoodbusiness.com). Editor, Fiona Robinson (frobinson@divcom.com). Antidumping research still plagues importers. Greg Rushford (www.RushfordReport.com). V-25, N-8, P-21, August 2006.
