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Ref:711/03 |
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world
- May 7, 2003 |
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Let Them
Eat Shrimp |
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SEAFOOD.COM NEWS by Ken Coons - May 7, 2003
David Barboza, a NY Times Business Day reporter in
the Chicago Bureau, has written a comprehensive piece
on the current state of shrimp farming and the current
market glut of shrimp in today's New York Times.
In a story filed from Thailand, he paints a picture of
market glut and ongoing, sometimes reckless,
development. With production booming in China, which
displaced Thailand as the leading producer, increasing
supplies at lower cost will likely mean U.S. per
capita consumption of shrimp will further outpace the
second most popular seafood, canned tuna.
David Barboza interviewed Chingchai Lohawatanakul,
chief executive of Charoen Pokphand Foods, the
flagship unit of the CP Group. Mr. Lohawatanakul
predicted that as shrimp prices fall, consumption will
grow even more. Shrimp, he said, will no longer be
seen as a luxury item, but will take its place as a
staple, like beef, chicken and pork.
'Our competitor is not India or Vietnam,' Mr.
Lohawatanakul said. 'Our competitor is pork.'
Because of cheap labor and new techniques, the cost of
producing shrimp is plummeting. 'They're making it at
an amazingly low price and will eventually put all
commercial fishermen out of business,' said Bob
Rosenberry, editor of Shrimp News International.
CP Group saw the value of its shrimp exports drop 25%
last year as wholesale prices dropped by about 50%. In
response, the CP Group is trying to move up the value
chain, analysts say, by marketing ready-to-eat shrimp
dishes and strengthening its more profitable shrimp
feed business. Yet problems remain. CP Group
executives say that demand began to slide after Sept.
11, 2001.
The company is being hurt by tighter European Union
restrictions on antibiotic use. Earlier this year, the
E.U. rejected some Thai shrimp after tests showed
residue of banned antibiotics.
Thailand also faces stiffer competition from China and
Latin America, where shrimp production is booming.
Last year, China became the world's largest shrimp
producer, a title Thailand had held since 1993. And
while demand continues to grow in the West, the pace
has slowed.
'There's just too much shrimp out there,' says Charles
Woodhouse, a columnist at Fish Farming International.
World shrimp farm production jumped to about 1.5
million metric tons in 2002, up from about 600,000 in
1990, according to Shrimp News International.
'It seems the shrimp are coming in here at a faster
pace than they can be consumed,' says Eddie Gordon,
president of the Southern Shrimp Alliance which is
still considering an antidumping lawsuit.
According to the NY Times, the CP Group is moving some
shrimp farming production to India, Vietnam, Malaysia
and Indonesia in order to compete with lower-cost
producers in China and Vietnam. Among other things,
experts say the moves could help the company avoid the
effects of viral diseases that have ravaged parts of
Thailand in recent years.
Even though Thai shrimp production reached record
levels last year, experts say production in many
regions is being slowed by disease. Some fear the
industry could be destroyed by the kinds of viruses
that wiped out the shrimp industry in Taiwan in the
late 1980's.
As a solution, many Thai farmers are abandoning the
traditional black tiger shrimp and experimenting with
white shrimp, a variety that costs less to produce and
has been bred to be immune to certain diseases.
To bolster production and lock out carriers of
disease, the CP Group is also experimenting with new
farming techniques. In Yisarn, a village 19 miles
south of Mahachai, it has developed indoor shrimp
ponds with temperature and water-quality controls.
'This is our future,' said Sujit Kaewchum, general
manager of the Yisarn research center. 'Here we can
harvest five times a year rather than two times. And
indoors we can get more consistency, more production.'
Indoor ponds could also help eliminate some of the
environmental problems that have long plagued the
industry, experts say.
Since the 1960's, environmentalists have criticized
shrimp producers for clearing mangrove forests and
destroying wetlands to build shrimp ponds.
'This is basically a cut-and-kill system,' said Isabel
de la Torre, an environmentalist working for the
Industrial Shrimp Action Network, an advocacy group.
'They dig up the land, create dikes, use chemicals and
kill everything off. Then, when they're done, they
leave and move up and down the coast, looking for a
new spot.'
Even today, World Heritage sites in Bangladesh and the
Philippines, meant to be preserves, are being cleared
of mangrove trees to create ponds, environmentalists
say.
Some industry officials concede that the creation of
giant ponds — often 100,000 square feet and five feet
deep — have resulted in environmental ruin. But they
insist recent shrimp farm development has been more
environmentally friendly.
'We're doing a lot better job managing the growth,'
said George Chamberlain, president of the Global
Aquaculture Alliance, an industry group. Industry
officials believe, however, that consumption growth
will soon recover and that new techniques will be
needed to produce even more shrimp. |
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