‘Many producers planning to expand capacity’

India is set gain the top slot in farmed shrimp production, overtaking China in 2019-20, said Ravi Kumar Yellanki, president, Society of Aquaculture Professionals.

“We have already overtaken China in shrimp exports last year but are on par with regard to farmed shrimp production. Next year, we will overtake China [on this count] too,” he said.

China’s output falls

While the shrimp production target for the current year stands at 7 lakh tonnes, India might end up producing 6.5 lakh tonnes, on par with China. Last year, India produced 6 lakh tonnes, he said. Shrimp production in China declined after the outbreak of the Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS) disease, he added. While India was not impacted by the disease, countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Mexico were largely affected. “But China kept inflating its production numbers by adding imports from Vietnam,” he noted.

“Next year, we will definitely overtake China as farmed shrimp production is on the wane. Their farmers suffered huge losses and this dissuaded them from getting into production,” said Ramakanth V. Akula, CEO, The Waterbase Ltd.(TWL), a leading shrimp feed manufacturer.

Huge tracts of land were available to host brackish water for cultivation, he said adding,“India has 15 lakh hectares suitable for brackish water, but only 10% of it [1.5 lakh hectares] is being used for shrimp production. Farmgate prices are increasing. Also, several shrimp producers are planning to expand capacity.”

Last year, India exported 4.02 lakh tonnes of Vannemei shrimp, an increase of 22% in quantity and 25% in value terms.

The company also plans to augment its shrimp feed production capacity either through greenfield or brownfield project.

“India needs good quality seeds. To sustain the momentum, we are setting up a ₹22 crore hatchery in Nellore in two phases,” he said. In the first phase, it would produce 250 million post larvae seed Vannemei shrimp. The trial runs are on and commercial productions would commence by October 2018. The second phase would also have similar capacity. The new plant might come up in Andhra Pradesh in two years. Based in Chennai, TWL is a leading acquaculture company promoted by Karan Chand Thapar Group. The company focusses on manufacture and marketing of shrimp feed, farm care products, processing of shrimp and producing post larvae of Vannemei shrimp. Last year, the company posted a revenue of ₹342 crore.Dwelling on the current year’s performance, he said a significant increase in raw material costs not only contracted the margins, but also impacted the operational profitability of the firm.