The decision for the lifting of the ban came about after encouraging reports and field verification of the successful conduct of breeding and grow-out experiments on the exotic shrimp by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.
BFAR director Malcolm Sarmiento said the lifting of the ban may yet prove to be the elusive solution to boost the ailing shrimp industry and bring it back to its glory when shrimp production reached 94,000 metric tons in 1994.
"This is our hope to revive the shrimp industry and make shrimps available to ordinary people," the fisheries director said, noting that while great progress has been made in the farming of bangus, seaweeds and tilapia, the growth of the shrimp industry has remained stagnant.
He added that the positive results gained from almost two years of intensive studies on the white shrimp had been affirmed by both the experts and the industry stakeholders.
"The experimental trials for the safe introduction of the P. vannamei are very positive with no expected negative impacts to disease introduction and biodiversity issues", Sarmiento assured.
It may be recalled that the DA- BFAR issued FAO No. 207 in 2001, which prohibits the entry of white shrimp in the country, among others, to protect the local sugpo or black tiger prawn from the dreaded Taura virus that devastated many shrimp farms in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand.
However, because of the insistence of some shrimp farmers and also to revive the ailing Philippine shrimp industry, as well as the report of a scientific breakthrough in the production of specific pathogen free white shrimp, the BFAR decided to conduct an experimental trial on the breeding and culture of the exotic shrimp.
The pacific white shrimp broodstocks used in the experiment were imported from Florida, USA in 2005. These were certified as SPF strain, which means it does not carry any dreaded diseases, to assure local growers and environmentalists that the exotic shrimp will not introduce any pathogens to our local sugpo.
BFAR subsequently gave the broodstocks a clean bill of health after no less than the University of Arizona, which runs the recognized reference diagnostic laboratory of the US shrimp consortium, certified the breeders disease-free. The imported P. vannamei broodstocks were successfully bred at the BFAR Dagupan Center and its offspring or post-larvae were distributed to accredited shrimp farmers nationwide for experimental grow-out and field testing.
Results of the private sector experiments showed that all the SPF offspring were disease-free. They also found out that the said shrimp grows twice faster and its production costs twice lower than the local sugpo. Shrimp experts and industry stakeholders have conferred the completion of the experimental trials for the safe introduction of white shrimp to Philippine aquaculture with no expected negative impact to disease introduction and biodiversity issues. - Jasmin R. Uy/MEEV