Country Reports

Australia

Marine Worms

Feed companies are becoming increasingly aware of the high levels of bromophenols (a polyunsaturated fatty acid) in marine worms.  Bromophenols have been found to significantly improve the nutritional quality and overall taste of cultured seafood.

Australian company AquaBait (pictures), run by Ladislav Safarik, operates a three-hectare farm that produces marine worms that contain high levels of bromophenols (1.l6 milligram per gram).  Safarik says, “We grow the tube worm Diopatra sp, which is well-known in temperate to warm waters in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.  In Spain they are known as gusano de tubo, in Greece as mauro, in Italy as kalamoto and in Japan as fukuro-mushi.”

Using seawater from a neighboring power station, AquaBait grows the worms in 25-square-meter concrete raceways filled with clean sediment.  Around 15 to 20 centimeters of water flows over the top of the worm bed.  A hatchery holds more than 2,000 broodstock that provide two-month-old juveniles for seeding the raceways.  They grow from egg to 25 centimeters in less than 12 months.  Water quality parameters are monitored regularly and the worms are feed commercial pellets at least twice a day.  Harvesting is currently undertaken by hand, although Safarik is experimenting with mechanized harvesting techniques.  “We can easily get more than two kilos of high quality worms per square meter of sediment, and with some selective breeding and other technology we know we can get even higher productivity,” he says.

After holding in clean sediment for a couple of days, the harvested worms are ready for live transport.  Safarik says the worms can be transported live for up to 20 hours with few problems, adding: “There is an increasing demand for frozen worms which are easier to store and transport.  With the increasing demand for our product, we are planning to build a larger facility that will expand our five-to-six-ton-per-year capacity to a commercial-scale facility producing around 100 tons per year.  We are certainly keen to examine overseas projects because AquaBait’s technology is now available for worldwide licensing.  We are also looking to integrate our worm production into the effluent of fish farms as the worms will filter out much of the waste products.”  Once Safarik demonstrates the use of the worms in bioremediation of aquaculture effluents, he expects demand for the production technology to explode.

Safarik’s daughter Milada, who is also involved in the company, completed her Master of Science thesis on the effects of population density on worm growth.  She says, “The sediment is continually turned over [by the worms], allowing oxygen to get down to the bottom sediments.”

Information: www.aquabait.com.au.

Source: Fish Farming International (http://www.fishfarminginternational.com).  Editor, Kenny McCaffrey (kenny.mccaffrey@informa.com).  AquaBait awaits the worm boom.  Dos O’Sullivan.  Volume 34, Number 11, Page 24, November 2007.

India

Antibiotics

The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), which promotes trade in fisheries and aquaculture products, plans to clamp down on the shipment of shrimp from India that contain antibiotic residues, a practice that threatens India’s global shrimp trade and has resulted in exporters threatening to stop sourcing shrimp from farms.

In a letter to major exporters, whose shipments were either detained or rejected by authorities in the European Union because their shrimp had antibiotic residues, MPEDA said it would withdraw the permits granted to their processing plants and scrap their export licenses if any more shipments were rejected.

In November 2007, MPEDA sent the letter to the following companies in the state of Andhra Pradesh, the center of the country’s shrimp farming industry:

Devi Fisheries, Ltd.

Devi Seafoods, Ltd.

Wellcome Fisheries, Ltd.

Surya Mitra Eximps, Pvt., Ltd.

Satya Sea Foods, Ltd.

Jagadeesh Marine Exports

According to MPEDA’s letter, the use of antibiotics results in a decline of exports and also damages “the very name and image of the country”.

There have been reports of rampant use of antibiotics such as chloramphenicol and nitrofuran on shrimp farms, which account for almost half the shrimp India exports.  MPEDA said exporters have been warned to purchase shrimp only after testing it for antibiotics.  A couple of recent rejections have occurred because processors and exporters are “not paying importance to our repeated instruction”, wrote MPEDA.

Y. Surya Rao, chief executive officer of Devi Fisheries, one of the companies that received the notice from MPEDA, said exporters have written to MPEDA clarifying that they were not responsible for the presence of antibiotics.  “There is little exporters or processors can do in this matter since the use of antibiotics is at the farm level and we cannot be penalized for this.  As exporters, we do not like to lose our reputation with our buyers and do not like to incur huge financial losses,” he added.  Rao said MPEDA, the government agency in charge of monitoring shrimp farms, hatcheries and feed plants, should set up more testing laboratories to help processors and exporters source products without antibiotics.

“If MPEDA does not withdraw its notices to the processors and exporters and does not take steps to ensure the supply of antibiotic-free shrimp from the farms, the Seafood Exporters Association will be forced to stop the sourcing of shrimp from the farms,” Rao said.  Executives at MPEDA said they would look into this issue.

Source: LiveMint.com.  Exporters threaten not to source shrimp from farms (http://www.livemint.com/2007/11/21231025/Exporters-threaten-not-to-sour.html).  Ajayan.  November 23, 2007.

Japan

Tiger Prices 20% Lower Than a Year Ago

Prices for giant tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) from India and Vietnam are 20% lower than a year ago.  A wholesaler at the Tsukiji Fish Market said that “black tiger is no longer the standard product” because of the increasing supplies of white shrimp (P. vannamei).

Source: Seafood.com (an online, subscription-based, fisheries news service).  Prices of Black Tiger stay at a level 20% lower at Tsukiji because of excessive supply.  Editor and Publisher, John Sackton (phone 781-861-1441, email jsackton@seafood.com).  November 27, 2007.

Japan

Shrimp Farm Ponzi Scheme

On July 31, 2007, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) searched the offices of World Ocean Farm, an investment company, on suspicion that it fraudulently raised $500 million from about 40,000 people for a shrimp farming venture in the Philippines.

World Ocean Farm was established in July 2001 and had branch offices in Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and other cities.  It started holding nationwide information sessions on the project in 2005.  Prospective investors were told that if they invested $842 they would receive dividends every 10 days, with their money doubling within a year.  Only a fraction of the investors’ money went into the development of the Philippine shrimp farm; the rest was used to pay dividends and line the pockets of the developers.  World Ocean Farm started to miss dividend payments in the autumn of 2006 and in January 2007 informed investors that it would no longer pay dividends.

The MPD launched its investigation in June 2007 after about 50 people filed complaints.  Probes revealed that the Philippine farm was a small and operated on a far smaller scale than investors had been led to believe.

In mid-February 2007, $40 million was transferred from the postal savings account of the company to an account in a German bank of an accounting firm in California, USA.  The following day the money was transferred again to an account at a major USA bank held by a Japanese citizen living in California.  In April 2007, the USA Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) traced the money transfers and summoned Isamu Kuroiwa, 58, chairman of World Ocean Farm, to the United States to quiz him about the transactions.  At the time, Kuroiwa identified himself as president of Nippon Hoshi-kai, a foundation based in Koto Ward, Tokyo, and told the USA investigators that he had asked the Japanese citizen living in the United States to manage the foundation’s funds.  The FBI froze the bank account because the money was likely connected with a crime as the holder of the postal savings account in Japan was World Ocean Farm.  Nippon Hoshi-kai has been effectively inactive for about two years due to a shortage of funds.  In June last year, Kuroiwa became the head of the foundation.

Rarely do those swindled in large-scale frauds get their money back, but in this case, some of them may get full or partial refunds because a Japanese law, enacted in December 2006, says that crime profits confiscated by the government will be returned to the victims.

Source: 1. Daily Yomiuri Online.  Investment firm searched over 60 bil. yen shrimp scam.  Yomiuri Shimbun.  August 1, 2007.  2. Daily Yomiuri Online.  Tokyo firm sent 4.8 bil. yen to U.S. in shrimp scam (http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20071123TDY01301.htm).  Yomiuri Shimbun.  November 23, 2007.

Mariana Islands

Saipan Aquaculture Company

In the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, a chain of 15 tropical islands in the western Pacific Ocean (15°10’51”N, 145°45’21”E) that belongs to the USA, Saipan Aquaculture Co., Inc., is selling locally grown, fresh shrimp at the Sabalu Market.

Saipan Aquaculture operations manager Rommel Catalma said that when he started selling shrimp at the market he didn’t have any idea how much shrimp he would need, so he started with 30 pounds.  In less than an hour, he was sold out, so he immediately called the farm and ordered the delivery of another 40 pounds.

But that was still not enough and by 10 a.m., he had to go home because he didn’t have any shrimp to sell.  This encouraged him to bring more shrimp the following Saturday and he sold more than 100 pounds.  “Sales are increasing every week because a lot of people keep coming back after trying our shrimp,” he said.

 Catalma said he is now selling at least 100 pounds every Saturday at $8 per pound.

”This is our retail price even if you buy direct from the farm or have it delivered.  We do offer discounts to volume purchasers and resellers,” he said.

“Nothing beats fresh.  People are now very conscious of what they eat.  Food safety and traceability are becoming more and more of an issue, especially on imported food.  Though the taste is definitely an advantage for fresh against frozen, to some people it’s not just about the taste, it’s the assurance that they are getting value for their money,” he said.

 Currently Saipan Aquaculture’s production is around 2,500 pounds a month and increasing.

Catalma hopes to quadruple production by the end of 2008.

 “Our system is different from most commercial shrimp production because we grow shrimp at very high densities to maximize space,” he said.

Source: Saipan Tribune.  Locally grown shrimp available at Sabalu Market (http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?newsID=74397&cat=1).  Mark Rabago.  November 18, 2007.

Mexico

Zeigler’s New Licensee

Zeigler Bros., Inc. (Gardners, Pennsylvania, USA), has licensed Nutrición Marinas SA, known as Nutrimar, to produce its shrimp and fish feeds in Mexico.  Nutrimar, a member of the BPO Group based in Guadalajara has varied business interests and owns shrimp and tilapia farms in Sinaloa.  It is currently building a mill to produce Zeigler feeds in Mexico.

Many years ago, Zeigler licensed Nutrición Animal SA (NASA) in Panama to produce shrimp and finfish feeds for distribution in Central America.

Zeigler offers a complete line of feed for shrimp and fish, including dry and liquid starter feeds for larvae, broodstock and maturation feeds, and juvenile and acclimation feeds.  It also markets therapeutic and all-natural feed additives.

Source: Fish Farming International (http://www.fishfarminginternational.com).  Editor, Kenny McCaffrey (kenny.mccaffrey@informa.com).  Mexicans Become Zeigler’s Latest Licensees.  Volume 34, Number 11, Page 16, November 2007.

United States

Florida—Unbelievable Bright Bronze Color

Bob Hults (17hults17@cfl.rr.com) reports: I have lived in Florida for 63 years, and I am very familiar with both wild-caught and farmed shrimp—or so I thought.  A couple of weeks ago at a local supermarket I came across 19-count, head-on shrimp from Venezuela for $2.99 pound.  I almost passed on them due to the suspiciously low price, but they looked terrific and had a fresh smell.  I lightly baked them in preparation for smoking in a cold smoker, a method I have used for years.

Point 1: They turned the most unbelievable bright bronze color (not the usual pink) I have ever encountered.

Point 2: After smoking was complete and my wife and I attempted to eat them, we could barely remove the shells due to the very soft, tacky consistency of the meat.  In decades of eating shrimp, I have never seen such soft shrimp.

Point 3: We somehow got through half of what I smoked, and I put the remainder in the refrigerator, hoping they would firm up as they cooled.

Point 4: After 2 days, the doggone things were still pasty and mushy.

Strangely the taste was “fair” although the mouth feel was awful.  That’s it.  I suspect something in the feeding/growing cycle went wrong.  I am still amazed how gorgeous they were in the store.  What do you think?  Thank you for any help.  Bob Hults, DeLand, Florida.

Shrimp News: Hults went back to the store, part of a very small regional chain, but could not get any more information on the shrimp.  If any of you have any idea of what’s going on here, please forward your guesses to Shrimp News (bob@shrimpnews.com), and I’ll post them to a future edition of the Free News page.

Source: Emails to Shrimp News International from Bob Hults (17hults17@cfl.rr.com).  Subject: shrimp quality.  November 28, 2007.  2. Bob Rosenberry, Shrimp News International, December 2, 2007.

United States

Hawaii—Blogger, The North Shore Shrimp Trucks

In the last ten years the number of shrimp trucks, roadside vehicles that sell cooked shrimp to the public, on Oahu’s North Shore has jumped from three to seven or eight.  My uncle owns a shrimp farm in Wailua.  His wife and my mom share days selling shrimp from his “Famous Kahuku Shrimp Truck”.  The first time I heard about these trucks I was amazed because people talked so highly about our truck.  Once I ate the ultra fresh shrimp in the garlic butter sauce, I became a believer!

The trucks price the shrimp from $10 to $12 dollars a plate, depending on how many shrimp are on the plate, usually around nine to ten.  My mom takes great pride in our shrimp.  We don’t have to advertise.  People are passionate about our shrimp and tell their friends about it.  I know what they like to order, I know their families and what they have been doing; 75% of them are regular customers.  It may be because we don’t charge for a scoop of rice.  The returning customers and big local families are worth the three cents it costs us for that scoop of rice.  The percent of customers that ask for that extra scoop of rice is about 15%, so it’s not a big expense.  We would make a bigger profit if we charged for the rice, but the free scoop is what sets us apart from our competitors.  The loyalty of returning customers is worth it.  On a regular basis people drive from Kapolei, Kailua and Pearl City, just to get our shrimp.  People don’t seem to mind battling traffic, the high price of gas, or the winter rains.

Giovanni’s, one of our competitors, does well because it advertises in all the tourist magazines.

Source: Econ 130(3) Blogtown.  The Economics of Shrimp (http://econ130-3-f-2007.blogspot.com/2007/11/economics-of-shrimp.html).  November 20, 2007.

United States

Oregon—Shrimp Number One in the USA

McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants has gone fishing to uncover American’s attitudes toward seafood.  The survey polled those who regularly eat seafood to determine what types they’re buying and ordering and what they look for when choosing seafood.

The survey found that shrimp was the respondents’ favorite seafood with 38% of them naming it.  Salmon finished second at 21%.

The survey also discovered that freshness rules over price; 39% of consumers ranked it as the most important factor when purchasing seafood.  Price came in next with 26% of the vote and flavor followed closely with 25%.

“We’re living in a time when consumers are becoming increasingly aware of what they’re putting into their bodies and are thinking about both the health benefits and consequences of their eating habits, both when they are eating out or dining in,” said Doug Schmick, chairman and chief executive officer of McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants.

McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants, Inc., is a leading seafood restaurant operator in the affordable upscale dining segment.  It operates 73 restaurants in the United States and six in Canada under The Boathouse brand.  It has successfully grown over the past 35 years by focusing on serving a broad selection of fresh seafood.

Source: Business Wire.com.  National Survey Finds Shrimp is Consumers’ Favorite Seafood; Salmon a Close Second (http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20071127005203&newsLang=en).  November 27, 2007.

United States

South Carolina—Steven Colbert, Comic

On November 27, 2007, Thomas Dorr, a top USA Department of Agriculture official, told about 200 people at the South Carolina Agricultural Summit, “We are entering an era of remarkable opportunity, not just for agriculture, but rural America as a whole.”

Those attending got a few laughs from a video message from Charleston native Stephen Colbert, the host of “The Colbert Report” on the Comedy Channel and author of the current best-selling book I Am America and So Can You, who choked back crocodile tears at being kept off the presidential primary ballot in South Carolina.  “I wanted to be president of South Carolina so bad,” he said.  “I was going to be sworn in on a sack of pork ribs, and I was going to institute the death penalty for eating Chinese shrimp.”

Source: The State.com.  Agribusiness is Looking Up (http://www.thestate.com/business/story/241816.html).  Bruce Smith (The Associated Press).  November 28, 2007.

United States

Texas—NaturalShrimp

After spending $8 million and six years honing the art of raising shrimp indoors, NaturalShrimp International officials are finally ready to ramp up production.  Three tons of Pacific white shrimp (Penaeus vannamei) are expected to be harvested weekly from its 42,000-square-foot facility in La Coste, where computers closely monitor the growth of the shrimp from tiny larvae to tasty jumbos.

Beside a double-wide trailer holding staff offices, NaturalShrimp has a greenhouse-style structure with lagoons where biologists have refined the process of year-round shrimp farming.  Nearby is a huge barn-like building, the firm’s prototype production center.  Beyond plans to expand its facilities in La Coste tenfold by 2010, the company is also preparing to open farms in North Texas, Mexico and Spain.

Gerald Easterling, president of NaturalShrimp, said, “Our marketing is following right along with our production.  Demand is growing among high-end chefs and restaurants for locally grown products grown in environmentally friendly green systems.”

NaturalShrimp established a retail outlet in Dallas last spring called Shrimp Station.

Billing itself as “The Starbucks of Shrimp”, NaturalShrimp International hopes to attract chefs and sushi lovers with its marketing mantra of “fresh, never-frozen, natural shrimp”.  Up to 1,000 pounds of shrimp on ice are shipped weekly to Shrimp Station, which caters to walk-up customers and restaurants.

As the shrimp are harvested, they’re immediately chill killed, then shipped whole within 24 hours.

The company expects to see its payroll climb from its current 20 employees to 100 in 2010.

The shrimp are raised in a chemical-free environment, and the salinity is maintained with salt from the Red Sea.  “We experimented with many other salts, but we found this gives us the best seawater,” said Joe King, general manager, gesturing toward a one-ton salt shipment from Israel.  Easterling is excited about finally reaching full production at the firm’s prototype farm in La Coste and duplicating it elsewhere.  “We had to go through everything here and make sure the technology was tight enough to where we can roll it out,” he said.

In addition, NaturalShrimp is expected to be the first tenant in a new 275-acre industrial park in Jacksboro, Texas, said Fred Calhoun of the Jacksboro Economic Development Corp.  The development group in the North Texas city of 4,500 is offering to help finance the shrimp farm, which will launch with one building on 10 acres and may add nine more if all goes well.

NaturalShrimp also has partnered with a Spanish company, GambaNatural, which plans to build a shrimp farm in Madrid in 2008.  Spain is one of the largest seafood-consuming countries in the world, importing about 150,000 tons of shrimp a year, all frozen, said Bjorn Aspheim, general manager of GambaNatural.  “We have already signed a distribution agreement with the largest live seafood distributor in Madrid,” he said via email.  “That company is also an investor in our company, so it shows the interest for a live, fresh product.”

It’s been a painstaking journey for Dr. Doug Ernst, an engineering specialist at NaturalShrimp International.  Raising the delicate animals in an artificial environment requires tracking scores of variables, such as the water’s temperature, acidity, turbidity and oxygen content.  “We had to develop it at a commercial scale,” Ernst said.  “You can’t do it in a lab.”

A major setback occurred last spring when more than 20,000 shrimp mysteriously died.  It was weeks before Ernst discovered that shrimp food from China contained melamine, a binding agent recently blamed for poisoning dogs and cats across America.

Source: Seafood.com (an online, subscription-based, fisheries news service).  Texas grower of indoor white shrimp aims to be “Starbucks of shrimp” with Spanish partner.  Editor and Publisher, John Sackton (phone 781-861-1441, email jsackton@seafood.com).  November 26, 2007.

Vietnam

CP Vietnam to Open Feed Mill

On November 22, 2007, Charoen Pokphand Viet Nam Livestock Company received a permit from the southern province of Ben Tre to open a $68.5 million plant to produce feed for fish and shrimp.  The project, the biggest yet of its kind in the province, will cover an area of 12 hectares at the An Hiep Industrial Complex in Chau Thanh District.  When completed in August 2008, the plant will be able to produce 384,000 tons of aquatic feeds a year.

Source: VietnamNewsAgency.com.  Thai firm to open fish food plant (http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=04BUS261107).  November 26, 2007.

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