DA to create Prawn Board

The Department of Agriculture (DA) will create a Prawn Board to address the pressing concerns of the industry, particularly growers in Negros Occidental, one of the biggest prawn-producing regions in the country.

The local prawn industry is beset with problems such as declining margins, higher production costs, weak demand and falling prices.

The proposed board, according to Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr., will include representatives from the shrimp industry, government, academe and possibly research institutions.

Lorenzo initially named DA Undersecretary Celestino Martines, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources executive director Malcolm Sarmineto Jr. and BFAR Western Visayas director Sonia Seville, as board members.

Lorenzo said the University of the Philippines in the Visayas and the Iloilo-based Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center may also be represented in the board.

In his dialogue with Negros prawn growers, Lorenzo stressed that industry players should continue to work toward improving their competitiveness, especially since competition in the region is increasing.

The prawn industry experienced a boom in the late 1980s, but a production glut caused by a surge in production of rival exporters like Thailand, resulted in many prawn farms losing their business with only handful a of survivors. Those that remained in the business have been sustaining their farms by diversfying into other more profitable agriculture and non-agriculture ventures.

The major prawn growers in Negros Occidental said that with a weakening global economy, the industry continues to face a bleak future, especially since its biggest market, Japan, has also been exporting less and less over the years.

"The Japanese, still reeling from their recession are holding back on spending. As a result,export sales are down because they are eating less of our prawns," Lorenzo said.

He added that while a first quarter export drop is seasonally expected, decline in shipment was worse this year because of jitters related to the Iraq war.

Local prawn farmers claim that while farm-gate prices rose to P400 per kilogram about two months ago, current price hovers around P270 per kilo, barely enough for them to make money given that production cost now ranges between P250 and P350 per kilo.

Growers cited other problems such as the uncontained prawn disease, the deadly luminous bacteria that continues to plague hundreds of hectares of Negros prawn farms, reducing output and increasing prawn’s health maintenance costs.