RP to lift ban on white shrimp imports

The Philippines is finally lifting the six-year ban on the importation and culture of the Pacific white shrimp (Peneaus vannamei) which some local shrimp growers warn carries a harmful disease that could adversely affect the local shrimp industry.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap finally signed and issued yesterday Fisheries Administrative Order (FAO) 225 which lifts the six-year ban on the importation and culture of the Pacific white shrimp.

Following the signing, Yap said that the decision to lift the ban was made after the DA’s attached agency, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) determined that the Pacific white shrimp variety could safety be re-introduced to the Philippines.

Yap assured that based on the BFAR’s test it was now safe to lift the ban.

He said that following "exhaustive trials" to ensure the safe introduction of P. vannamei stocks into the country, the test results were "very positive, with no negative issues on biodiversity and the possibility of disease infecting our local industry."

Yap, in fact, was optimistic that reintroducing P. vannamei back into the local fisheries sector would boost the ailing shrimp industry.

The DA, together with shrimp breeders project that with intensive commercialization of the white shrimp variety, sales of the industry could quadruple to P4 billion from the current P1 billion.

Non-government organization (NGO) Tambuyog Development Center (TDC), however, opposes the lifting of the ban, warning that the aquaculture sector as a whole is not ready for it.

Tambuyog’s executive director Arsenio Tanchuling said the Philippines lacks a dependable supplier of cost-effective and disease-free Pacific white shrimp fry.

Tanchuling insisted that "business-wise it’s not viable to go into vannamei production also because a suitable feed for the white shrimp variety remains unavailable."

Tanchuling further cautioned that there is a lack of an adequate protocol that would allow the government to respond effectively to an outbreak of shrimp diseases.

The DA banned the importation and culture of Pacific white shrimp in 2001 after shrimp farms in the Visayas were infected with a disease.

BFAR said it started conducting experiments on the breeding and culture of Pacific white shrimp starting in August 2005 due purportedly to the clamor of shrimp farmers to help revive their ailing industry.

BFAR studied the feasibility of re-introducing the shrimp variety following reports that specific pathogen-free (SPF) P. vannamei could be produced.

The Pacific white shrimp brood stocks used in the experiments, BFAR said, were imported from the US in 2005.

Local shrimp growers warn that Pacific white shrimp stock from Taiwan may still carry the disease and could re-enter the Philippine shrimp market with the lifting of the ban.