On December 11, 2006, I chatted with Bing Hung, president of Southern Star, Inc., formerly Hung Shrimp Farms, who said, "We're developing the first privately owned industrial park for aquaculture in the United States."

Southern Star has 63 ten-acre ponds and 94 five-acre ponds that it leases to aquaculturists. Right now all the ten-acre ponds are leased, but more than 50 of the five-acre ponds are available. Southern Star supplies the pond, water and discharge permit; and the tenant supplies seedstock, feed, equipment and labor. Tenants also pay their own energy bills. Hung encourages commercial ventures, but says his ponds also provide a good place to test products (like feeds, probiotics and aeration equipment), to do research, or to just test an idea.

Shrimp News: Do you lease any other facilities?

Bing Hung: Yes, we have 16 concrete ponds measuring 50 feet by 65 feet by 4 feet deep and 12 concrete ponds measuring 75 feet by 100 feet by 5 feet deep. In addition to that, we have 40,800 square feet of greenhouse space with a concrete floor that can be used for hatcheries.

Shrimp News: What is the source of your water?

Bing Hung: The Arroyo Colorado River, only four nautical miles upstream from the hyper saline Laguna Madre Bay. Our average salinity is around 5 to 15 parts per thousand and the water is rich in algae.

Shrimp News: Is farm labor available?

Bing Hung: Yes, we can get unlimited labor from Mexico at an average rate of $5.15 an hour. The State of Texas might raise this to $6.00 an hour soon.

Shrimp News: Is shrimp feed available?

Bing Hung: Yes, four big feed companies, Nutrena, Burris, Rangen and Zeigler Brothers deliver weekly or daily.

Shrimp News: How long do the leases run?

Bing Hung: For at least three years, beginning in January and ending in December.

Shrimp News: How much do you charge for a one-year lease on a five-acre pond?

Bing Hung: $5,000, plus $1,000 for the water assessment fee (a fuel charge for pumping water).

Shrimp News: What are the advantages of your site?

Bing Hung: It's in southern Texas, which has one of the best climates for growing fish and shrimp in the United States. Shrimp can be grown from March through November and fish all year long. There are three shrimp processing plants within thirty minutes. We own a nearby shrimp hatchery. We also have a very important water discharge permit. It's difficult to get new discharge water permits in Texas, especially at our location. We have 200-acre wetland to recycle waste water; our tenants don't have to worry about any water discharge issues. We take care of that.

An entrepreneur can start with twelve ponds and expand pond by pond as his business grows. Other entrepreneurs on the farm are doing the same thing, and they all help each other out. Shrimp farming is part of the culture in this corner of the state, and we provide a place where that culture can flourish.

Shrimp News: Is your offer open to foreigners?

Bing Hung: Yes, we started out just serving Texas companies, now we have people coming in from other states and overseas.

Shrimp News: Will you be at the World Aquaculture Society Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, USA, in February 2007?

Bing Hung: Yes, and I will talk with anyone interested in leasing ponds. I also invite everyone to visit our farm, it's about a four to five hour drive from San Antonio.

Information: Bing Hung, Southern Star, Inc., 35518 Marshall Hutts Road, Rio Hondo, TX 78583 USA (phone 956-748-2333, mobile 956-266-5495, fax 956-748-3600, email binghung2@aol.com).

Source: Bing Hung. Interview by Bob Rosenberry, Shrimp News International. El Cajon, California. December 11, 2006.


Country Reports

Brazil
Feeding Bio-flocs to Juveniles

The objective of this study was to evaluate the nutritive value of algal/bacterial flocs on survival, growth and feed consumption and conversion of Litopenaeus vannamei juveniles in matched experimental systems (clear water versus brown water) fed diets containing different amounts of protein. The experiment ran for twenty days and consisted of nine treatments: three water types and three levels of protein. Water was recirculated within a sump and consisted of either clear, UV filtered water, brown water or a 50:50 mix of clear water and brown water from a super-intensively managed raceway unit. Diet treatments were either no food, or food with 25% or 35% protein content. Treatments were randomly assigned to 50 liter, mesh-covered plastic bins within each water type. Each treatment had five replicates, each containing 44 shrimp, with a mean stocking weight of 1.82 ± 0.71 grams for a final density equal to 300 per m². Shrimp in each treatment (except those in the no feed treatment) were fed 3 times daily via a specially designed feed tray. Feed consumption and conversion were calculated based on weight gain, survival, total consumed feed, feed loss through leaching and initial feed moisture content.

Results were analyzed by two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and differences between means analyzed by Tukey's test. Survival in the fed treatments was greater than 98% in all treatments. Survival in the non-fed treatments was significantly higher in the brown water treatments than in the clear water treatment. Final weight, weight gain, final biomass, feed consumption and conversion were significantly higher in all treatments fed with 35% protein feed. This result suggest a positive relationship between growth parameters and the protein content of the feeds in this system, and confirms the benefit of natural productivity for production of L. vannamei.

Source: World Aquaculture Society. The CD of the Aqua 2006 Abstracts (Florence, Italy, May 2006). Effect of Natural Production in Brown Water Super-Intensive Culture System for White Shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei. Wilson Wasielesky, Jr. (manow@mikrus.com.br), Heidi Atwood, Al Stokes and Craig Browdy [Laboratório de Maricultura, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande (FURG), C.P. 474, Rio Grande (RS), 96201-900, Brazil]. Information: John Cooksey, World Aquaculture Conference Management, P.O. Box 2302, Valley Center, CA 92082 USA (phone 760-751-5005, fax 760-751-5003, email worldaqua@aol.com, webpage www.was.org).


Indonesia
CP Prima

PT Central Proteinaprima (CP Prima, the Indonesian shrimp farming unit of Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Group) operates shrimp feed mills, hatcheries, farms and processing plants across Indonesia and exports shrimp to the USA, the European Union and Japan. Through 2009, it is set to expand its business with an investment of $155 million. Part of the funds will come from its recent initial public offering, which raised around $36 million. The funds will be used to build new shrimp farms, expand the feed mill and build infrastructure.

In the third quarter of 2006, CP Prima made a profit of $19.5 million, an increase of 1.45 percent over the same period in 2005.

Sources: 1. AquaCulture Asia Pacific (Editor/Publisher, Zuridah Merican, email zuridah@aquaasiapac.com, webpage www.aquaasiapac.com). IPO for CPPrima. Volume 2, Number 5, Page 6, September/October 2006. 2. Seafood.com (an online, subscription-based, fisheries news service). Indonesian shrimp producer CP Prima plans $155 million investment in expansion. Ken Coons. Editor and Publisher, John Sackton (phone 781-861-1441, email jsackton@seafood.com). November 29, 2006. 3. The Jakarta Post. Proteinaprima's net profit up by 1.45% (http://thejakartapost.com). December 13, 2006.


Thailand
Moana Technologies

Moana Technologies, LLC, of Kona, Hawaii, USA, a producer of genetically improved, specific pathogen-free Penaeus monodon broodstock and seedstock, is ready to introduce its products into Thailand.

Yuan Wang, president Moana Technologies, said, "Using various populations of giant tiger shrimp stocks from Southeast Asia, South Asia and Africa, and after five years of establishing families, we now have a founder stock in Hawaii consisting of several hundred pedigreed and unrelated families. These will be used to produce commercial breeder stocks with desired traits such as fast growth and disease resistance."

Domestication of the founder stock took three years, but by late 2004, it was largely completed and the nucleus breeding center at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii, a state-owned aquaculture park on the island of Hawaii, was fully functional. Shrimp are now being field tested.

Information: email moanatech@monantech.com.

Source: AquaCulture Asia Pacific (Editor/Publisher, Zuridah Merican, email zuridah@aquaasiapac.com, webpage www.aquaasiapac.com). New BT parent stock for industry in Thailand. Volume 2, Number 6, Page 40. November/December 2006.


United States
Hawaii--Size Does Not Always Matter

United Press International reports: When two similarly sized male shrimp or when two similarly sized female shrimp compete for food, the larger shrimp usually wins. But when it's males and females of about the same size, guess who wins? Scientists at the Oceanic Institute in Hawaii found that smaller male shrimp nearly always win when competing for food with larger female shrimp. "Both size and gender are important factors in acquiring food," said study author Dustin Moss. "But when you pit male against female, gender becomes more important."

The study appears in the Journal of the World Aquaculture Society.

Sources: 1. ScienceDaily. When shrimp are involved, gender counts (http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20061212-14241800-bc-us-shrimp.xml). December 12, 2006. 2. The Journal of the World Aquaculture Society. Effects of Gender and Size on Feed Acquisition in the Pacific White Shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei. Dustin Moss and Shaun Moss (The Oceanic Institute, 41-202 Kalanianaole Highway, Waimanalo, HI 96795 USA, phone 808-259-3310, fax 808-259-9762, email smoss@oceanicinstitute.org, webpage www.oceanicinstitute.org). Volume 37, Issue 2, Page 161-167, June 2006.


United States
Washington, DC, Shrimp Imports

In October 2006, USA shrimp imports set a record, over 140 million pounds, more than in any other month in USA history, up 13% over October 2005. White shrimp were up 15%, white peeled raw shrimp were up 32%, and white cooked shrimp were up 45%. Breaded shrimp were up 20%. The only significant decline was with tiger shrimp; headless shell-on tigers were down 26%. The flood of imports shows that USA demand for shrimp continues to grow, and that the imposition of import tariffs did not reverse the trend towards more and more imported shrimp.

Source: Seafood.com (an online, subscription-based, fisheries news service). October U.S. shrimp imports set record for highest volume ever. Editor and Publisher, John Sackton (phone 781-861-1441, email jsackton@seafood.com). December 12, 2006.


Vietnam
Antibiotics

On December 12, 2006, Truong Dinh Hoe, deputy general secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors (VASEP) said Vietnam should stop exporting shrimp to Japan until it can ensure that its products are free of antibiotics.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Fisheries is testing all seafood exports to exclude those with antibiotic residues.

Under Ministry of Fisheries regulations, shrimp exporters must register their products at the National Fisheries Quality Assurance and Veterinary Directorate (NFQAVD) for quality tests.

The Ministry of Fisheries has also proposed that the Customs Department halt exports without NFQAVD labels.

Japan has traditionally been one of Vietnam's major seafood customers, accounting for 26.8 percent of its exports, second only to the USA.

Source: Thanhniennews.com. Vietnam toughens measures to improve Japanese shrimp exports (http://www.thanhniennews.com/business/?catid=2&newsid=23167). Nguoi Lao Dong (Translated by Tuong Nhi). December 13, 2006.

Click here for previous Free News reports in 2006