MPEDA chairman A Jayathilak during the launch of the multi-species aquaculture centre. (Photo: Melton Antony)

New aquaculture complex will help black tiger shrimp industry to bounce back

INDIA
Saturday, June 23, 2018, 01:00 (GMT + 9)

The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) expects to boost the aquaculture sector by opening India’s first multi-species hatchery and nursery at Vallarpadam, in Kochi, in the state of Kerala.

The Multi-species Aquaculture Complex has a capacity to produce two million fingerlings of six commercially-important species, including black tiger shrimp, Asian seabass, pompano, cobia, genetically-improved farm tilapia and mud crab.

“The hatchery has the capacity to produce 20 million disease-free high-health tiger shrimp seeds. The facility will help revive black tiger shrimp farming in the state after a gap of two decades and will help improve the revenue of fish farmers as the demand for good quality tiger shrimp is very high in the international market,” said MPEDA chairman A Jayathilak.

The organisation recognises that one of the major impediments in undertaking black tiger shrimp farming is the lack of healthy disease-free seeds. The resource had dominated the aquaculture industry till 1994, when white spot syndrome viral infection reduced farm productivity. In 2009, the exotic ‘vannamei’ shrimp was introduced in India’s coastal aquaculture, which helped boost the export revenue.

However, the black tiger shrimp is in high demand in the European and Japan market and can fetch 20 per cent more income.

The entire bio-secured hatchery has all the essential facilities such as reservoirs, water filtration unit, microalgae labs, artemia section, maturation section, larval rearing and post-larvae rearing units, and effluent treatment system. A quarantine unit to collect the disease-free wild broodstock will be established soon.

Official statistics reveal that in the period 2015-2016, the country produced 40,900 tonnes of vannamei shrimp and exports of the resource increased to 570,000 tonnes in 2016-17 and 700,000 tonnes in 2017-18.

With the aquaculture complex, the MPEDA expects the figure to touch 1 million tonnes in the current fiscal year.

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