Country Reports
Canada
Shrimp Virus Protection from Safflower Seeds
SemBioSys Genetics, Inc., a public corporation registered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, produces high-value proteins from genetically modified safflower seeds. Its shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange in Toronto under the symbol SBS. For the past two years, some farms in the state of Washington (USA) have grown the seeds as an ingredient for shrimp feeds sent to South America. The goal is to boost the shrimp's immune system and protect them from viruses, said Rick Keon, manager of planting operations and field regulatory affairs.
Working with Big Bend Grain, a limited-liability company established by the Central Washington Grain Growers, SemBioSys produced 10 acres of the genetically engineered crop in eastern Washington in 2006.
In a filing with the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), the company applied for a permit to plant 1,000 acres in 2007. Later it reduced the project's scope to 200 acres at two sites. "This was an internal business decision. We didn't need as much seed as a thousand acres would provide us," said Keon.
The plan has provoked heavy criticism. Keon said about 20 letters were submitted to APHIS regarding the company's plans. None of the letters was in favor of the proposal.
The longest letter came from Neil Carman of the Sierra Club's Genetic Engineering Committee. The 11-page missive cited numerous studies to support the organization's opposition and listed 26 points against the SemBioSys proposal. Many of the letter's points concerned the possibility of the genetically engineered safflower moving offsite as either seed or pollen, and it mentioned specific instances of severe storms in the counties where the company is planning on planting the crop.
APHIS can react to the company's filing in a number of ways. It can deny the planting outright, attach more conditions or require additional studies. Keon said there is no deadline on when APHIS must render its decision.
During the first half of 2007, SemBioSys plans to scale-up the production of ImmunoSphere™, its shrimp feed additive, and get it ready for a product launch.
Information: Andrew Baum, President and Chief Executive Officer, SemBioSys Genetics, Inc., 110-2985 23rd Avenue, N.E., Calgary, Alberta T1Y 7L3, Canada (phone 403-250-5424, fax 403-250-3886, email bauma@sembiosys.com, webpage http://www.sembiosys.com).
Information: Rick Keon, SemBioSys Genetics, Inc., 110-2985 23rd Avenue, N.E., Calgary, Alberta T1Y 7L3, Canada (phone 403-250-4524, fax 403-250-3886, email keonr@sembiosys.com, webpage http://www.sembiosys.com).
Sources: 1. Capital Press. Critics assail growers' plan to biopharm safflower crop/APHIS urged to reject protein intended for shrimp aquaculture (http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=67&SubSectionID=619&ArticleID=31117&TM=2130.319). Scott A. Yates (syates@capitalpress.com). March 16, 2007.
Cuba
Las Tunas Province
In Las Tunas Province (south-central, Cuba), near the city of Colombia, an additional 270 hectares of shrimp ponds are going to be constructed this year.
Source: Periodico. Shrimp Breeding to Grow in Las Tunas, Cuba (http://www.periodico26.cu/english/news_tunas/shrimp032107.htm). Wálner Ortega Batista. March 21, 2007.
Guatemala
Ladex and the Moreira Family
Ladex, the marketing arm of the Moreira family's shrimp businesses, offers shrimp fishermen and farmers in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela a way to band together and market their products in the USA and Europe. Ladex's 400 customers include retailers Costco and Albertsons and food distributors servicing hotels and restaurants. It's a vertically integrated operation that allows it to capture several layers of profit margins.
The Moreira family has interests in feed mills, a shrimp hatchery, a processing plant and two Guatemalan shrimp farms. It markets shrimp under the "Maya" and "Sunday's Best" brands. All told, Ladex markets about 60 million pounds of shrimp a year, generating more than a $100 million in annual income, for which it receives a fixed commission of 5% to 7%.
At 60, Domingo R. Moreira, president of Ladex, looks at the future of the shrimp industry and sees something that looks a lot like the present poultry industry.
Source: Florida Trend.com. Shrimp Giant (http://www.floridatrend.com/print_article.asp?aID=44830). Mike Vogel. July 1, 2006.
India
Wanted: Solutions to Blue-Green Algae Problems
I am doing shrimp culture in freshwater and facing problem with blue-green algae blooms, which cause sudden crashes and result in pond bottom problems and shrimp with loose shells. How might I resolve this problem?
Source: Email to Shrimp News International from N.M. Venkatesh (nmvenkatesh@gmail.com) on March 23, 2007.
India
Wanted: Shrimp Broodstock from the Andaman Sea
We are looking for giant tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) broodstock from the Andaman Sea (off the western coast of Thailand) or specific-pathogen free (SPF) or specific-pathogen resistant (SPR) broodstock from anywhere.
Source: AquaNic (The Aquaculture Network Information Center, a gateway to the world's electronic aquaculture resources, http://aquanic.org/index.htm). Shrimp Discussion Group (http://www.aquanic.org/discuss/shrimp.htm). Is there anyone to supply tiger broodstock from Andaman or SPF or SPR P. monodon (http://www.aquanic.org/discuss/_shrimp/0000118e.htm). From: s [not a typo]. March 7, 2007.
Indonesia
Dipasena Assets to Sell Next Month
Jakarta...In May 2007, the government asset management firm PT Perusahaan Pengelola Aset (PPA) said it plans to start selling the assets of the Dipasena Group, one of the largest shrimp farms in the world. The sale process may take three months. PPA said former owner Syamsul Nursalim, as well as Dipasena's creditors, PT Recapital Advisors and PT Renaissance Capital Asia, would not be allowed to bid on the assets.
Source: Seafood.com (an online, subscription-based, fisheries news service). Indonesian agency selling shrimp exporter Dipasena Group. Ken Coons. Editor and Publisher, John Sackton (phone 781-861-1441, email jsackton@seafood.com). March 23, 2007.
Myanmar
Hopes to Export 500 Tons of Shrimp to Bangladesh
In fiscal year 2007–2008, shrimp exporters from the Maungdaw Township Wholesale Shrimp Center in the state of Arakan hope to export 500 tons of shrimp to Bangladesh, up from 400 tons in 2005-2006 and 230 tons in 2004-2005.
In Maungdaw Township, there are over 3,000 acres of shrimp ponds. The military's western command owns 1,070 acres, and Nasaka [border security forces] owns 700 acres. Shrimp businessmen pay cash to rent the farms from the military and Nasaka. In all of Arakan, there are 155,533 acres of shrimp ponds; 40 percent of them belong to local army battalions, a businessman said.
Source: Narinjara. Burma Hopes to Export 500 Tons of Shrimp to Bangladesh (http://www.narinjara.com/details.asp?id=1189). March 21, 2007.
Thailand
Freshwater Prawn Farming
Freshwater prawns are grown throughout Thailand. In Chachoengsao Province (east of Bangkok) and Nakhonsithammarat Province (southern Thailand), farmers turned to prawn farming when local bans prohibited marine shrimp farming in inland areas.
Farmers work together, hold local management meetings, share information with their neighbors, and in some areas work communally at harvest. Prawn farming is a very lucrative business that yields higher net profits than most other occupations, so farmers rarely subsidize their income with other activities.
Unlike marine shrimp farming, the majority of prawns are sold for local consumption. Most farmers sell to traders at the farm gate, who sell the prawns at the Chatuchak Market in Bangkok or the Mahachai Market in Samut Sakhon. Prawns are also sold in district markets, restaurants and hotels.
Over 90% of the interviewed farmers practice monoculture, but some polyculture prawns with fish or alternate them with rice or other crops. The most prevalent strategy, employed by almost 7,000 farms, is to stock postlarval prawns in nursery ponds at high densities. After 60 to 75 days, prawns are transferred to growout ponds, with the first harvest after five months. Most farms are less than five hectares.
Farmers stock around 20 juveniles per square meter. Seed is most often purchased from local hatcheries, but is also available from Kaset Somboon Farms and Charoen Pokphand, the largest agribusiness conglomerate in Thailand. In preparation for stocking, ponds are dried for seven to 30 days, then tilled and plowed, and then treated with agricultural lime or dolomite. Sometimes salt is used in nursery ponds to bring up the salinity up to 0.1 to 1.2 parts per thousand.
Farmers sell female prawns for $1.25 to $3.75 a kilo, while males, which grow larger, sell for $2.00 to $6.25 a kilo. Farmers earn $24,000 a year, or more, well above the average household income in Thailand, which is approximately $4,000 a year for a household of three or four people.
Source: The Global Aquaculture Advocate (http://www.gaalliance.org). Editor, Darryl Jory (dejry2525@aol.com). Production/Freshwater Prawn Farming in Thailand. Vicki Schwantes (vsschwan@umich.edu), James Diana, Ph.D. (School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1041 USA), Yang Yi, Ph.D. (School of Environment, Resources, and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, Klong Luang, Pathumthani, Thailand) Volume 10, Issue 1, Page 70, January/February 2007.
United States
Alabama--Country of Origin at Restaurants
Alabama's seafood industry wants diners to know whether the shrimp they're eating came from the Gulf of Mexico--or China and Vietnam. A bill in the state Legislature would make restaurants tell them. If the bill gets passed, the following statement would appear on menus: "Upon request, the customer has the right to know the country of origin of the seafood served in this establishment." This is the fifth year the bill has been introduced, but it has never passed. The Alabama Retail Association, which says the "legislation would be burdensome for restaurateurs", has always opposed the bill. A poll in 2003 found that 81 percent of Alabama voters favored the bill.
Source: MontgomeryAdvertiser.com. Bill targets menus, foreign shrimp (http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070317/NEWS/703170335/1001). Kenneth Mullinax. March 17, 2007.
United States
Shrimp Imports in January 2007
There seems to be no stopping shrimp imports. Even after a record-breaking year in 2006, the new year has started out with another advance in both volume and pricing. In January 2007, 108.2 million pounds of shrimp came into the USA, 2.9% more than the previous January. The imported shrimp was worth $334.3 million, up 3.4% from 2006. This suggests that wholesale prices are strengthening, and a look at per-pound value confirms the trend. In January 2007, the average price for shrimp was $3.09 a pound, up from $3.08 a pound a year earlier. The reason for the increases? Black tigers are seeing some price increases because there is less of it being grown, and, probably more important, more shrimp is being brought in as higher-priced, value-added products, a trend that has been going on for at least three years. Of the top ten suppliers, five saw an increase in shipments to the USA while five saw a decrease. The five on the upside were Thailand, China, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela. The five with lower shipments were Indonesia, Vietnam, India, Malaysia and Bangladesh. Shrimp holds a coveted position in the USA seafood market. In a time of rising prices and reduced supplies for crab, salmon and other finfish, shrimp is readily available at historically low prices. This should mean continued expansion of the shrimp market.
The January 2007 price was down from $3.16 a pound in 2005, but up from $2.83 a pound in January 2004.
Source: Seafood Trend Newsletter. Editor, Ken Talley (8227 Ashworth Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98103-4434 USA, phone 206-523-2280, fax 206-526-8719, email seafoodtrend@aol.com). March 26, 2007.
Vietnam
Oil Slick
Two mysterious oil slicks, one over a month old, continued to plague Vietnam. The older one was first noticed in early February in central Quang Nam Province. On March 15, 2007, it reached Phu Yen Province, affecting about a kilometer of coast near the Dong Hoa District. A shrimp hatchery in the area that's owned by the Vietnam-based US Asia Hawaii Ventures is threatened by the spill. The second slick, which appeared off the mouth of the Mekong River on March 13, 2007, has drifted to Ca Mau Province, one of the leading shrimp farming provinces.
In Hawaii, Tran Tony Phuc Thanh, director of Asia Hawaii Ventures, said he panicked when curdled oil was found on the beach near the company's shrimp hatchery. "One week ago, my workers reported an oil spill and curdled oil on the coastline. I have ordered 200 workers to collect the oil and they have collected 800 kilos," he said.
Sources: 1. ThanhnienNews.com. Oil slicks continue to dog Vietnam central, Mekong provinces (http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/?catid=3&newsid=26141). Tuoi Tre and Nguoi Lao Dong. March 17, 2007. 2. Vietnam Net Bridge. Phu Yen: Oil threatening shrimp hatcheries (http://english.vietnamnet.vn/biz/2007/03/674922/). March 19, 2007.
