The Hindu Business Line : Epidemic puts shrimp farmers in a tizzy

Shrimp seeds, which were stocked in farm during January and February, have been completely wiped out, while those stocked in mid-March are showing about 50 per cent survival, according to farm sources.

Meanwhile, arrivals to the markets are low except for the smaller counts of shrimps, which are available following panic harvest by farmers concerned by disease problems in the farms.

Disease outbreak being reported in farms within 40-50 days of stocking with shrimp seeds, the farmers opt for distress harvest. This has made some quantities of smaller counts (71-90; 91-110 counts and smaller) mostly peeled undeveined (PUD) or peeled deveined (PD) enter the market. These varieties fetch around $2 per kg and the US and the EU markets pick up these stocks. The farmers are keeping their fingers crossed regarding the ponds stocked in mid-March.

Japan continues to be wary of picking up stocks from India, while the US and EU are picking up smaller counts of black tiger shrimps. Black tiger prices range about $12 per kg for 16/20 counts and some isolated contracts have been confirmed, according to market sources.

The main problem has been attributed to the failure of the rains. The water level in the creeks is down and there has not been proper flushing in the water systems. Therefore, bacterial load has increased, according to farm sources.

Viral infection has also been noticed in the broodstocks; the mother prawns used for obtained the shrimp seeds. This has hit the quality of shrimp seeds.

Japan has not been picking up stocks in the market primarily because of quality related problems, according to some of the buyers. They are not willing to predict when the purchases are likely to pick up.

Meanwhile, due to the indefinite strike announced by the transporters; arrivals of inputs to the farms and seed sales by the hatcheries had been hit. With most of the farms having completed stocking activity in March and most hatcheries out of production, the impact had been restricted to the few hatcheries that were in operation, the sources said.

Sales to Kolkata and Andhra Pradesh from the hatcheries on the East Coast Road had been hit. If the strike was not lifted in the next few days they could suffer losses. Normally, about one million shrimp seeds were air lifted to Kolkata every day, they said.

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