Taiwanese shrimp growers to share knowhow, invest in RP

Taiwanese shrimp growers, particularly of the Pacific white shrimp variety or P. vannamei, are now eager to share their knowledge in the cultivation of the variety in the Philippines following the recent lifting of the ban on its importation and cultivation.

According to officials of the Manila Economic Cooperation Office (MECO) in Taipei, the cultivation of Pacific white shrimp is one of the areas of cooperation and investment interest that the Philippine and Taiwanese governments are working on.

While, Taiwan is interested in sharing its technical knowledge and skill in the cultivation of the Pacific white shrimp, MECO officials assured that only pathogen-free varieties would be exported to the Philippines.

In tests conducted by the Department of Agriculture, the pathogen-free Pacific white shrimp used came from the United States. The P. vannamei strain available in Taiwan was believed to contain pathogens harmful to other shrimp varieties in the Philippines.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap recently signed and issued Fisheries Administrative Order (FAO) 225 which lifted the six-year ban on the importation and culture of the Pacific white shrimp.

Yap said that the decision to lift the ban was made after the DA’s attached agency, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), determined that the Pacific white shrimp variety could safety be re-introduced to the Philippines.

Yap assured that based on the BFAR’s tests, it is now safe to lift the ban.

He said following "exhaustive trials" to ensure the safe introduction of P. vannamei stocks into the country, the test results were "very positive, with no negative issues on biodiversity and the possibility of disease infecting our local industry."

Yap was optimistic that reintroducing P. vannamei back into the local fisheries sector would boost the ailing shrimp industry.

The DA, together with shrimp breeders, forecast that with intensive commercialization of the white shrimp variety, sales of the industry could quadruple to P4 billion from the current P1 billion.

Non-government organization (NGO) Tambuyog Development Center (TDC), however, opposes the lifting of the ban, warning that the aquaculture sector as a whole is not yet ready for it.

TDC executive director Arsenio Tanchuling said the Philippines still lacks a dependable supplier of cost-effective and disease-free Pacific white shrimp fry, insisting that "business-wise it’s not viable to go into vannamei production also because a suitable feed for the white shrimp variety remains unavailable."

He further cautioned that there is a lack of an adequate protocol that would allow the government to respond effectively to an outbreak of shrimp diseases.

The DA banned the importation and culture of Pacific white shrimp in 2001 after shrimp farms in the Visayas were infected with a disease.

BFAR said it started conducting experiments on the breeding and culture of Pacific white shrimp starting Aug. 2005 due purportedly to the clamor of shrimp farmers to help revive their ailing industry.

BFAR studied the feasibility of re-introducing the shrimp variety following reports that specific pathogen-free P. vannamei could be produced.

The Pacific white shrimp brood stocks used in the experiments, BFAR said, were imported from the US in 2005.