Free News April 14, 2006

Australia
Ingredients for Hatchery Diets

Aquatic Diagnostic Services International announces three new AlgaMac products from Aquafauna Bio-Marine in the USA: (1) AlgaMac 2500, a spray-dried Crypthecodinium algae in powder form containing high levels of DHA (42% of total fatty acids); (2) AlgaMac Enhance, a spray dried Crypthecodinium and Haematococcus algae combination in powder form, high in DHA and natural astaxanthin; and (3) AlgaMac ARA, which contains a minimum 12% by weight of arachidonic acid, suitable for broodstock, larvae and Artemia nauplii feeds.

Information: Dr. Darryl Hudson, Aquatic Diagnostic Services International (phone 0409727853, fax 0733526689, email dhudson@hypermax.net).

Information: Leland Lai, Aquafauna Bio-Marine, Inc., P.O. Box 5, Hawthorne, CA 90250 USA (phone 310-973-5275, fax 310-676-9387, email lelandlai@aquafauna.com, webpage www.aquafauna.com).

Source: FisheNews (an email supplement to Austasia Aquaculture magazine, www.austasiaaquaculture.com.au). Editor, Tim Walker (austasiaaquaculture@netspace.net.au). Product News: AlgaMac 2500, Enhance and ARA--new hatchery products from ADSI and Aquafauna Bio-Marine. March 23, 2006.

Belgium
From Eric De Muylder

I have started a consulting company named "CreveTec". It will specialize in shrimp feed technology and the control of feed efficiency through better adapted feeds and better feed management. I like to work in close collaboration with the farmer and utilize the nutrients in the pond water.

Information: Eric De Muylder, CreveTec, Nieuwenbos 43, 1702 Groot-Bijgaarden, Belgium (phone +32-473721004, email eric@crevetec.be, webpage www.crevetec.be).

Source: Email from Eric De Myuylder on April 13, 2006.

Brazil
Three Big Challenges

The Brazilian shrimp farming industry faces three big challenges in 2006: a very unfavorable exchange rate, diseases (IMNV and WSSV) and slow growing shrimp, caused in many cases by infected broodstock transmitting pathogens to their offspring. At some farms, shrimp stop growing at eight to ten grams.

Production has been dropping for two years in a row and will probably drop again in 2006. Some farms are going out of business, some are lowering stocking densities, and some are just not stocking, creating a economic down draft that has spread to shrimp feed companies, processing plants and hatcheries.

Brazil will briefly open its borders to imports of some certified pathogen-free, pathogen-resistant Penaeus vannamei from reputable sources in the hope of reinvigorating its stocks.

Source: Bob Rosenberry, Shrimp News International, April 14, 2006.

Ecuador
"Fresh" Shrimp to Canada in 48 Hours

Tropical Aquaculture, the USA marketing arm and brand of Industrial Pesquera Santa Priscila, S.A., an Ecuadorian producer of farmed shrimp, has delivered "fresh" Ecuadorian farm-raised shrimp to a retailer in Canada in about 48 hours after harvest.

Industrial Pesquera Santa Priscila, S.A, has 8,500 hectares of shrimp ponds and exports 35-50 containers of shrimp monthly, primarily to France as head-on shrimp and to the USA as headless, shell-on shrimp. Fully integrated with hatchery, feed mills and farms, it uses no antibiotics and offers full traceability of its products from hatchery to farm to plant.

Over the 2005/2006 winter, Tropical Aquaculture experimented with using its distribution system to deliver fresh shrimp to retail outlets in Canada. Loblaws, a major Canadian chain headquartered in Toronto, tried the promotion on a small scale during the winter of 2004/2005, and wanted to expand it this past winter, so it arranged for 100,000 pounds of fresh shrimp to be delivered to its stores.

For stores that were familiar with fresh shrimp from the trial the previous year, the promotion was very well received. Tropical said that 40-60 count shrimp (a mixture of 41-50 and 51-60 counts) sold for approximately $4.30, noting that airfreight added about $0.60 per pound.

In addition, Tropical ships about 80% of Ecuador's fresh tilapia, roughly 350,000 pounds of fillets weekly, air-freighted to major ports of entry in the USA, such as Miami, Los Angeles and Boston.

Information: Tropical Aquaculture Products, Inc., 63 Grove Street, Rutland, Vermont 05702 USA (phone 802-747-6311, email info@eattilapia.com, webpage http://www.eattilapia.com/index.html or www.santapriscila.com).

Source: Seafood.com (an online, subscription-based, fisheries news service). Major Ecuador tilapia producer expanding into fresh shrimp with Loblaws promotion. By John Sackton, Editor and Publisher (phone 781-861-1441, email jsackton@seafood.com). April 4, 2006.

Thailand
Malachite Green

In January 2006, inspectors in Korea found malachite green, an antibiotic and carcinogen, in five tons of frozen tiger shrimp meat imported from Thailand. All of the contaminated meat was returned.

Source: Donga.com ("Internet Journal for the 21st Century", Korea). Carcinogen Found in China-Sourced Fish (http://english.donga.com/info/us.html). Keuk-In Bae (bae2150@donga.com). April 4, 2006.

United States
Florida-Durwood Dugger

In response to a discussion on the Shrimp List, Durwood Dugger, a shrimp farming consultant, wrote:

Shrimp farming is no longer an attractive or competitive investment. Shrimp farming profits are at all time lows worldwide. Shrimp commodity prices are near and in some cases below production costs. The only sustained financial successes in shrimp farming are those firms that have optimized the economies of scale and are nearly, or totally, vertically integrated. This makes business plans for the establishment of small and mid-sized shrimp farms look like very questionable investments. Sure, there are some smaller independent farms still hanging on, but you can't deny the consolidation trends that have been going on worldwide for the past five years (note the recent Ladex/GMSB consolidation in Central America).

Future investments in shrimp farming are more likely to be much larger, more complicated, more vertically integrated, and probably solely an activity of multinational corporations. At least that's what our shrimp farming risk/reward analysis tells us...today.

Source: The Shrimp List (a mailing list for shrimp farmers, "shrimp-subscribe@yahoogroups.com"). Subject: Re: [shrimp] Re: 511 hectare farm-American investors. From: duggerdm@bellsouth.net. April 1, 2006.

United States
Massachusetts-Aqua Bounty Technologies

Aqua Bounty Technologies, Inc., a public biotechnology company focused on the development and marketing of health and therapeutic products for shrimp culture, is soliciting candidates for two senior level global sales positions: (1) regional sales manager for the Americas and (2) regional sales manager for Asia (eastern and western Asia, plus the Pacific rim). Aqua Bounty will offer a very competitive package of salary, bonuses and benefits to qualified candidates who meet the job descriptions. For more information on Aqua Bounty and these positions, go to "http://www.aquabounty.com" and click on "Employment Opportunities" at the bottom of the page.

Information: Henry Clifford, Vice President of Marketing and Sales, Aqua Bounty Technologies, Inc., 8355 Aero Drive, Lab 17, San Diego, CA 92123 USA (phone 858-467-6675, fax 858-467-6571, email hclifford@aquabounty.com).

Source: The Shrimp List (a mailing list for shrimp farmers, "shrimp-subscribe@yahoogroups.com"). Subject: [shrimp] Employment opportunities (Americas and Asia). From: hcclifford@aol.com April 9, 2006.

United States
Mississippi-Greenhouse Covers

The effect of light intensity on growth and survival of Penaeus vannamei was the focus of this study.

The plastic films that are used to cover greenhouses vary in the amount of light they let through.

Tanks covered with clear plastic had the highest water temperatures, but the lowest survivals. Tanks covered with opaque covers produced the largest shrimp. Tanks covered with white covers had the lowest water temperatures, the highest survivals, the greatest production, but produced the smallest shrimp.

Source: The CD of the Aquaculture America 2006 and Marine Ornamentals '06 Abstracts. Effect of Different Greenhouse Covers on Production of White Shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei in a Pilot Scale Facility (John T. Ogle and Jeffrey M. Lotz, University of Southern Mississippi, Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, P.O. Box 7000, Ocean Springs, MS 39564 USA, email john.ogle@usm.edu). 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).

United States
South Carolina--The Waddell Mariculture Center

The Associated Press reports: On April 4, 2006, South Carolina's Waddell Mariculture Center, funded by the USA Department of Agriculture's Marine Shrimp Farming Program, harvested 3,000 pounds of 21.5-gram Penaeus vannamei from a tenth-of-an-acre pond. The shrimp were six to eight inches long.

I called Al Stokes, manager of the Waddell Mariculture Center, to get more information on the harvest. Al said that 2.4-gram shrimp were stocked at 370 per square meter and harvested 139 days later with survivals of 74 percent and a feed conversion of 2.4 to 1. He said the growout period was unusually long and the feed conversion ration over two because the shrimp stopped growing three weeks before harvest. He said that many of Waddell's past harvests were larger (with larger shrimp) than this one because fast-growing lines of shrimp were used. He could not get fast-growing lines for this trial, but will certainly use them, when available, in the future.

Information: Alvin Stokes, Waddell Mariculture Center, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, P.O. Box 809, Bluffton, SC 29910 USA (phone 843-837-3795, fax 843-837-3487, email stokesa@mrd.dnr.state.sc.us).

Sources: 1. WIS10News (wistv.com, Colombia, South Carolina, USA). South Carolina's shrimp farming operations growing up (http://www.wistv.com/global/category.asp?c=2467). Graeme Moore (Associated Press, Bluffton, South Carolina, USA). April 8, 2006. 2. Telephone conversation with Al Stokes on April 11, 2006.

Vietnam
Drugs and Chemicals

Nguyen Thi Hong Minh, Deputy Minister of Fisheries, calls for drastic measures to stop shrimp farmers from using prohibited chemicals. She says they are ruining the prestigious image of Vietnamese shrimp, and she thinks Vietnam could lose some business over the issue.

In 2006, police in Ca Mau Province, the leading shrimp farming province in southern Vietnam, discovered 255 cases of prohibited chemicals in shrimp and seized 66 tons of materials worth $200,000. The two most serious cases resulted in three-year jail sentences for the violators. In 2005, police discovered 148 cases of banned substances in shrimp.

"The problem lies with the fact that we cannot control the quality of shrimp from the ponds or catching boats to the wholesalers," said Minh.

In accordance with a plan signed by Minister of Fisheries Ta Quang Ngoc on March 22, 2006, the Ministry will examine 100% of the shrimp brought to processors and collecting centers in the Mekong River Delta.

Fifty-one shrimp processors have agreed not to purchase or use shrimp that violates the laws on safety, but analysts are doubtful of their commitment because they have made that promise before. It currently costs about $800 to $1,000 to examine a container of seafood before exporting, a burden processors prefer to avoid.

The government only examines products at processing plants, finding it difficult to monitor quality at the much smaller collection centers. It has inspection centers in HCM City, Ca Mau and Can Tho, all with limited staffs.

Sources: Vietnam Net Bridge (a state-owned enterprise within the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Corporation). VN struggles with chemicals in shrimp (http://english.vietnamnet.vn/biz/2006/04/556769/). Ha Yen. April 4, 2006.