BFAR: Ban on live shrimp imports paying off

The imposition of an indefinite ban on the importation of all live shrimps is paying off, as exporters cash in while the Philippines remains “uniquely” disease-free in Asia, according to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

“We are now exporting at least P325 million worth of vannamei (white shrimp) monthly for the past three months,” BFAR director Asis G. Perez said in an interview. “We expect shipments to be bigger in the coming months.”

Last April, BFAR suspended indefinitely the processing of applications for the importation of all live shrimps and crustaceans, in an effort move to prevent early mortality syndrome (EMS) and other shrimp diseases from entering and spreading in the Philippines.

According to the BFAR, EMS is characterized by massive mortalities during the first 30 days of life, and infected shrimps show slow growth, corkscrew swimming, and pale coloration.

The bureau put up a watch list on inbound shipments from “heavily affected” areas such as Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Myanmar, Brunei and Cambodia.

“The move proves to be correct since the Philippines remains EMS-free unlike our neighbors, and we are now reaping positive results,” Perez said.

In August, Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala said his department was gearing up for a shrimp production blitz to enable the country to regain a firmer foothold in the export market within six months.

Alcala said in an interview he had assigned the BFAR to draw up a roadmap on shrimp exportation.

“We need a crash program to increase production within the next six months up to a level that we could send shipments abroad,” Alcala said back then.

The agriculture chief said the Philippines had enough breeding stock to drive export-oriented production.

He said he had met with industry stakeholders and that it was agreed that one of the priorities was supply integration.

“This might be it, we may be able to rebound (with our shrimp industry),” Alcala said.

The Philippines enjoyed a boom in the shrimp export market in the 1990s, which unfortunately bombed out when shrimp diseases wiped out farms.