Shrimps get ready for overseas trip

AHMEDABAD: Tiger prawns cultivated across south Gujarat are ready for savouring by gourmets across the globe. Seafood exporters from Mumbai already have their eyes set on around 3,500 tonnes of prawn due to be harvested from later this month.

Expecting a 25% hike in production, shrimp farmers are confident that their produce would meet the demand from connoisseurs in the Far East, the US, Europe and South Africa. Shrimp farming is prevalent in south Gujarat districts of Bharuch, Surat, Navsari, Valsad and to some extent in Diu across 3,000 ponds.

With three biggest seafood export houses from Mumbai aiming to bag almost the entire produce at around Rs 260 a kg, the shrimp farmers could expecting a turnover of Rs 91 crore. The export realisation of shrimps from Gujarat would be close to Rs 140 crore, Seafood Exports Association of India (Gujarat region) president Kenny Thomas told ET.

Mr Thomas who owns an export house, Jinny Marine Traders in Veraval, added that he will source around 50 tonnes of shrimps from Diu to supply exclusively to the EU. His counterpart in Navi Mumbai, SG Nair, who owns Forstar Food, will procure 1,000 tonnes of shrimps from Gujarat while, another Mumbai-exporter, Naik Seafoods, owned by Nisar Naik
will source around 1,500 tonnes from the state.

“Although we procure close to 1,000 tonnes of shrimps, owing to rise in production, we will source up to 1,500 tonnes, Naik said. Likewise, Castle Rock Fisheries will source around 1,000 tonnes of tiger prawns from Gujarat. These export houses have been routing shrimps to Europe, the US, Japan, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Thailand, the Middle East and South Africa.

The Surat Aquaculture Farmers Association, which is promoting aquaculture in Surat district — the biggest producer of tiger prawns (Penaeus monodon) in the state with around 1,800 tonnes — claims that the 100 new shrimp ponds added in the district in 2006-07 will boost production. “Moreover, the 100 others added in Bharuch and Navsari districts is going to add to the produce,” its general secretary Manoj Sharma said.

Thomas added that spurred by the demand of farm shrimps globally, farmers in Junagadh district are contemplating to set up shrimp ponds in the region. “We are in the process of bring around 500 hectares under shrimp farming in Junagadh district targeting nearly 2,000 tonnes of tiger prawns in the next two years,” he said.