Black Tiger Shrimp Ban lifted

What is Black Tiger Shrimp?

India farms mainly two varieties of shrimp — ‘Pacific White Leg Shrimp’ (Litopenaeus vannamei) and ’Indian Black Tiger Shrimp’ (Penaeus monodon)

Black tiger shrimp, commonly known as the giant tiger prawn or Asian tiger shrimp, is a popular delicacy the world over and also forms an important segment of India’s marine products export basket. Japan consumes nearly 40 per cent of India’s black tiger shrimp exports, while it enjoys niche markets in the EU and the US also.

Striped like its jungle namesake, the black tiger shrimp is available year-round and is one of Asia’s major aquaculture products. Most tiger shrimp is farmed, though a significant amount is harvested from the wild by trawlers working mud bottoms from very shallow water to depths beyond 300 feet. The largest of 300 commercially available shrimp species worldwide, tigers can grow to 13 inches, but harvest size averages 9 to 11 inches. Many countries supply black tigers from both farmed and wild sources.

The species is distributed over a huge range, from east and southeast Africa through the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf, around the Indian subcontinent and through the Malay Archipelago to northern Australia and the Philippines. Important suppliers include Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Malaysia. Asian suppliers generally offer state-of-the-art packing and processing; many follow HACCP guidelines developed for U.S. operations.

The Issue:

It was from 2010 that the black tiger shrimp, an endemic species to south-east Asia, began to face a slump in its traditional reputation as a major variety of cultivated shrimp item in India. That was after aquaculture farmers in the country began to focus on growing the exotic vannamei species of shrimps in a big way.

The black tiger shrimp production in Kerala is showing an increase thanks to an initiative by the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) launched earlier this year.Mpeda has also been making sustained efforts to revive the production of black tiger shrimps by supplying high quality seeds from its new Multispecies Aquaculture Complex (MAC) at Vallarpadam in Kochi.

Why did Japan ban Black Tiger Shrimp?

The detection of certain banned antibiotics in the shrimps exported to Japan had badly hit India’s export prospects to that country. Japan had already rejected more than 10 consignments of shrimps exported from India in the recent weeks, causing heavy losses to exporters and shrimp farmers.

Odisha and West Bengal regions are the most affected areas as around 60 per cent of the black tiger variety of shrimp produced in these regions is exported to Japan

High level sources said as the issue is yet to be sorted out, Japan is likely to ban shrimp imports from India.

Why the ban on Black Tiger Shrimp has been lifted now?

Japan has lifted the inspection order on Indian black tiger shrimps (Penaeus monodon) after the export consignments were found to be free from any residue of synthetic anti-bacterial drug furazolidone. It has also reduced the import inspection sampling frequency for black tiger shrimp to 30 per cent from the current 100 per cent.

The present decision by Japan will give an impetus to the farming and export of Black Tiger variety which has been shadowed by the mass production of exotic vannamei variety during the last 10 years

About MPEDA:

The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) was set up by an act of Parliament during 1972. The erstwhile Marine Products Export Promotion Council established by the Government of India in September 1961 was converged in to MPEDA on 24th August 1972.

MPEDA is given the mandate to promote the marine products industry with special reference to exports from the country.

It is envisaged that this organisation would take all actions to develop and augment the resources required for promoting the exports of “all varieties of fishery products known commercially as shrimp, prawn, lobster, crab, fish, shell-fish, other aquatic animals or plants or part thereof and any other products which the authority may, by notification in the Gazette of India, declare to be marine products for the purposes of (the) Act”. The Act empowers MPEDA to regulate exports of marine products and take all measures required for ensuring sustained, quality seafood exports from the country. MPEDA is given the authority to prescribe for itself any matters which the future might require for protecting and augmenting the seafood exports from the country. It is also empowered to carry out inspection of marine products, its raw material, fixing standards, specifications, and training as well as take all necessary steps for marketing the seafood overseas.

MPEDA is the nodal agency for the holistic development of seafood industry in India to realise its full export potential as a nodal agency. Based on the recommendations of MPEDA, Government of India notified new standards for fishing vessels, storage premises, processing plants and conveyances. MPEDA’s focus is mainly on Market Promotion, Capture Fisheries, Culture Fisheries, Processing Infrastructure & Value addition, Quality Control, Research and Development.

Vannamei Shrimp:

Indian marine products are principally supported by frozen shrimp, which is mainly sourced from the coastal aquaculture farms. India farms mainly two varieties of shrimp — ‘Pacific White Leg Shrimp’ (Litopenaeus vannamei) and ’Indian Black Tiger Shrimp’ (Penaeus monodon).

Black Tiger Shrimp is mostly farmed in the traditional ponds of West Bengal, Odisha and Kerala, whereas the exotic vannamei variety is farmed mainly in states like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Odisha

Introduction of exotic ‘vannamei’ shrimp into India’s coastal aquaculture system has significantly contributed to maintaining the momentum in the country’s marine product exports.

The introduction of L. vannamei started at an experimental basis in 2009 with some small trials with two exporters that had their own farms. The larger scale commercial introduction, regulated and controlled by the Coastal Aquaculture Authority (CAA), started in 2012. In 2017, more than 550,000 tonnes out of a total production of 600,000 tonnes of shrimp was accounted for by L. vannamei (SEAI, 2018)

Shrimp Cultivation in North-Western regions:

The agriculture economies of six southwest districts of Punjab State (Fazilka, Ferozepur, Sri Mukatsar Sahib, Bathinda, Faridkot and Mansa) are being affected by the dual problems of underground water salinity and water-logging, thanks to the Green Revolution and the overuse of irrigation.

These inland, salt affected and waterlogged areas – where agriculture does not have a prominent role but water is abundantly available – can be potentially utilized for developing aquaculture. Thanks to research and development initiatives from 2007 to 2018 by Guru Angad Dev Veterinary & Animal Sciences University (GADVASU) in Ludhiana (Punjab, India) under various projects – including the Niche Area Excellence Program during 2010 to 2015, funded by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi (India) – inland saline water aquaculture has flourished in the State of Punjab.

This aquaculture development has transformed the socioeconomic status of this farming community, otherwise forced to work as daily wagers or farm laborers.

Freshwater carp culture in the village of Shajrana (Fazilka District) in Punjab.
Subsequently, after a preliminary farm trial in 2013, the first pilot project farming Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) started in Fazilka in 2014, which developed these wastelands into a potential economic resource and attracted the attention of the state government. This led to the start-up of financial assistance to poor farmers of the region to adopt aquaculture and reclaim their lands for employment and a dependable livelihood.