See promise in shrimp raising
IF ONE can sell small-sized shrimps at P220 a kilo and P350 for jumbo-sized, that’s virtually a pot of gold for shrimp growers. But that can only be true if you are into Penaeus vannamei raising.
This was attested to by Teofilo “Jun” Rivera, a former provincial board member of Bulacan, now better known as “Mr. Vannamei” (for the Pacific white shrimp Penaeus vannamei).
Rivera, who started raising P. vannamei in an eight-hectare fishpond farm in Cabangan, Zambales two years ago, has since converted his entire 14-hectare fishpond farm into P. vannamei culture when he realized his profits jumped quadruple.
Rivera is the president of the White Shrimp Growers Association, a Luzon-wide group with 33 accredited P. vannamei growers, told local newsmen during the recent two-day seminar among accredited growers held at the Bureau of Fisheries-National Integrated Fisheries Technology Center (BFAR-NIFTDC) in Bonuan Binloc here that his initial harvest in the eight-hectare pond yielded 60 tons.
He said he has also tried P. monodon raising or tiger prawns but he failed, saying the variety was vulnerable to diseases and was “wiped out”.
“P. vannamei has no disease. Very sturdy.” he said.
Dr. Westly Rosario, interim executive director of the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute and BFAR-NIFTDC center chief, said that because of diseases that hit tiger prawn, 80 percent of hatcheries and fishponds closed.
Rosario said problems that growers encounter in raising P. vannamei are being closely monitored to ensure that fishponds are bio-secure.
He added that the survival rate so far is 45 to 65 per cent which is considered “very high” with production level of five to seven tons per harvest per hectare in about 100 to 150 days.
Meanwhile Rivera lamented that “while our neighboring countries are already doing it, we in the Philippines are still debating on it.”
He said he supports the lifting of the ban with regulation and found it regrettable that there are still some groups trying to contest its commercial production. – EVA
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