Artemia cyst larval feed import hurdles touble shrimp farmers

KOCHI: Technical hurdles are hampering the import of live larval feed, an essential ingredient for the aquaculture shrimp production in the country, triggering a shortage that could affect the marine products exports. Farmed shrimp accounts for over 65% of the Rs. 30,000-crore seafood exports from India.

Aquaculture producers import brood stock and the live larval feed, which is a brine saline shrimp called artemia for producing shrimp seeds in the hatcheries. While the brood stock availability is adequate, there is a shortage of artemia. "India is one of the largest users of artemia for shrimp larval production. Shrimp hatcheries in India use 5 kg of artemia cysts to produce one million seeds of the marine shrimp vannamei, which accounts for the majority of frozen shrimp exported from the country," said L Satyanarain, president, Al India Shrimp Hatcheries Association.

Artemia is harvested naturally in the freezing temperatures or extreme saline conditions in countries like USA Russia and China. They are imported in the form of cysts, which are hatched in hatcheries here to produce young ones that are used as live feeds for shrimp larvae in the farms.




The hatcheries have voiced concern a the delay in clearance of artemia consignments at ports due to technical reasons. "Though we have talked to authorities and cleared the held-up consignments. It is enough only for the next few months after which there will be a shortage if the problem is not sorted out," said Muthukaruppan, president of Society of Aquaculture Professionals.

The total worth of artemia imported into the country is around Rs . 150 crore.

The health certificate for artemia cysts, which used to be issued by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is given by its office in California from January 1, 2015.

This certificate has a different format and does not endorse the absence of pathogens directly. But the certificates on testing done by the University of Arizona are enclosed.

"The new format is not agreeable to the Indian authorities though the rest of the documentation remain the same," Satyanarain said.

There is hardly any risk of pathogens associated with the import of artemia from salt lakes of the US. The product can be tested at Indian ports by the government institutes if needed, Satyanarian said in a letter addressed to Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh. He also suggested that the agriculture ministry can take up the issue with USDA asking them to follow the earlier format for imports.