Ex-politician finds ‘pot of gold’

DAGUPAN CITY — From his humble beginnings as a provincial board member of Bulacan, Teofilo "Jun" Rivera is now known as "Mr. Vannamei," a nickname made popular by the species of prawn he produces which he described as a "pot of gold."

Rivera became famous in his effort to raise the Pacific white shrimp Penaeus vannamei in his eight-hectare fishpond farm in Cabangan, Zambales two years ago.

His efforts paid off. Now he is the president of the White Shrimp Growers Association, a Luzon-wide group with 33 accredited P. vannamei growers.

He said his income from raising the P. vannamei shrimp species grew four times bigger than his previous efforts in raising tilapia and bangus.

Rivera had proved raising P. vannamei is a profitable business because the shrimp specie is virtually disease-free.

He converted his entire 14-hectare fishpond farm here into P. vannamei culture.

Rivera presided a two-day seminar among accredited growers held at the Bureau of Fisheries-National Integrated Fisheries Technology Center (BFAR-NIFTDC) in Bonuan Binloc last Thursday and Friday.

He told the accredited growers that the initial yield of the shrimp from his eight-hectare pond reached 60 tons.

Rivera claimed he tried other species such as P. monodon and tiger prawns but they were unprofitable.

"P. vannamei has no disease. Very sturdy," he told the growers.

Along with the other 32 accredited growers, Rivera urged the government to lift the ban on the commercial growing of the species.

"While our neighboring countries are already doing it, we in the Philippines are still debating on it," Rivera said.

He expressed his support for lifting the ban but to a degree of regulation.

"That’s good for the industry and that’s good for the country because this is export-oriented," he said.

Rivera lamented some groups are lobbying against growing P. Vannamei on fears that they are too commercial.

"Where is tiger prawn now? Nobody is earning from tiger prawn now so what’s their alternative? They just want us to lose money, right?" he asked.

Rivera bared plans to contest the ban before the Fisheries Administrative Order (FAO) prohibiting the import of P. vannamei and culture them for commercial purpose.

He said the FAO policy should be relaxed to allow good species since growing P. vannamei is relatively easy.

He said growers are tempted to resort to illegal means because they know this is where they could earn more.

Dr. Westly Rosario, interim executive director of the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute and BFAR-NIFTDC center chief, noted diseases forced 80 percent of hatcheries and fishponds for tiger prawns to close down.

He said the government has noted the problems the growers might encounter in growing P. vannamei.

Rosario said fishponds for the prawns should be specially selected, thus the need for accreditation of growers to ensure that their fishponds are "bio-secure."

So far, the survival rate of P. vannamei is 45 to 65 percent, considered "very high" with production level of five to seven tons per harvest per hectare in about 100 to 150 days, he said.

"We have to create an industry to help aquaculture and fisheries sector because we are targeting increased high-yielding shrimp production," Rosario said.

Biologically, every breeder produces every three to 12 days about 100,000 to 300,000 fry per spawning.

The return of investment is 100 percent, excluding land and development cost, Rosario noted.

The seminar was conducted for the first time among accredited growers to answer the problems arising from growing the shrimp specie.

In August 2004, DA-BFAR and Agri-Fisheries World Inc. agreed to undertake research and verification studies on P. vannamei for hatchery and grow-out operation here.

The broodstock were sourced from Pacific white shrimp facilities in the US known to have capacity to produce specific pathogen-free stocks in Kona Bay Maritime Resources and Molokai Sea Farms International, both in Hawaii.

About 131,978,808 post larvae were produced and distributed to 25 accredited farms. There are presently 1,180 breeders of the shrimp.

Small vannamei sell at P220 a kilo (10-14 grams) while jumbo-sized (26 up) are P350 a kilo.