DAGUPAN CITY - Accredited farm owners in Luzon have asked for the lifting of a fishery administrative order issued by the government in year 2001 banning the importation of live shrimps from abroad.

The ban was sought by 33 accredited growers of Penues vannamei, a kind of white shrimp, using fry that were produced by 1,000 breeders imported by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources from Hawaii last year.

Only the accredited growers are allowed so far to culture p. vannamei because of the existing ban on the importation of live shrimp.

Teofilo ‘Jun’ Rivera, a former provincial board member of Bulacan, and president of the White Shrimp Growers Association in Luzon, said the lifting of Fishery Administrative Order No. 207, series of 2001, was sought during the p. vannamei Luzon-wide convention here last week.

The convention held at the National Integrated Fisheries Technology Research and Development Center in Bonuan Binloc of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources here, was attended by Dr. Westly Rosario, interim director of the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI).

Dr. Rosario said the return of investment in p. vannamei is more than 100 per cent, capable of producing from five to seven tons per hectare and could be harvested from 100 to 120 days.

The convention was held on the heels of a resolution also calling the lifting of the ban signed by shrimp growers from Visayas and Mindanao.

Rivera, one of the 33 accredited growers of p. vannamei in Luzon, admitted he is culturing p. vannamei in his 14-hectare fishpond in Cabangan, Zambales and had been very successful so far.

Using post larvae produced by the NIRTDC here, Rivera said that in p. vannamei white shrimp, fish farmers could earn three to four times higher than tilapia.

He said he found his shrimp not affected by the disease as compared to the indigenous Tiger Prawn he also stocked, which was wiped out by a disease in just one month.

“The lifting of the ban (on the import of live shrimp) is good for the shrimp industry and also good for the country because this is expert-oriented,” Rivera said.

He said that while all of the country’s neighbors, like China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, are using p. vannamei in their food production, the Filipinos are still arguing on the entry of this kind of shrimp strain.

Rivera lamented that there are still certain groups trying to contest the full use of p. vannamei in shrimp productio, who stil think that the indigenous Tiger Prawn is still the best shrimp variety for the country.

But Rivera asked: “Where is Tiger Prawn? Nobody is earning from Tiger Prawn anymore.”

He said no fish farmer is willling to continuously lose money by seeding Tiger Prawns in their fish ponds.

The former board member from Bulacan called on fish farmers throughout the country to be open-minded by shifting to p. vannamei. where the big money really is.

He said his group wants the BFAR to lift the ban on the importation of live shrimps for them to be able to choose the best stock suited for their farms.

Saying that p. vannamei white shrimpo is easy to grow, Rivera stressed that the culture of white shrimp must now be legalized if the country wants to boost its food production.

“I am for the lifting of the ban, but before the BFAR does that, it must first enforce certain regulations to protect the industry from abuse,” Rivera said. (PNA)