Ending a decade’s slide in the production of black tiger shrimps, India is experiencing a comeback of the seafood, thanks to an initiative launched by the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) earlier this year.
The Kochi-headquartered MPEDA begun supplying black tiger shrimp seeds from its new multispecies aquaculture complex (MAC) at Vallarpadam in February. An increase in the sale in the past 100 days shows that farmers are interested in raising the disease-free variety.
MPEDA chairman, K.S Srinivas, commented, “We knew that increased production of the black tiger variety can boost India’s shrimp exports in the long run. We are seeing the early signs of it happening.”
Hormis Tharakan, a progressive shrimp farmer, said that the seeds showed very good performance during the three months of culture period. “They gained an average weight of 38g, thanks to the quality. I got 260kg of shrimp in 90 days,” he said.
The Rs 7.26-crore MAC features a hatchery with an annual production capacity of 20 million black tiger shrimp seeds, besides nurseries for four varieties of fin fishes. Kerala has accounted for much of the recent rise in black tiger shrimps but similar trends are being reported in Goa and parts of the Coromandel Coast along eastern India. Feedback from the farmers in Kollam and Kannur in north Malabar has also been positive.
