Due to increased demand from export markets and resilience of farmgate prices, around 40- 50% of shrimp farmers in Malaysia’s largest shrimp production region have switched to farming black tiger shrimp. Sales of black tiger feed in Perak rose to over 10,000 metric tons in 2017, according to a presentation at the latest Aquaculture Roundtable Series (TARS), conference, held in Chang Mai, Thailand. Catherine Lee May Ying, senior manager at Blue Archipelago, a Malaysian seafood company, whose figures were based on feed sales data, said that based on current price situation in Malaysia “the pull to farm Black Tiger was strong”.
Malaysia produced significant quantities of black tiger in the early 2000s, but then switched largely to vannamei. That was until the early mortality syndrome epidemic which hit the country in 2012 significantly dented output; annual output of 120,000t of vannamei in 2011 slumped.
Many farmers switched to farming fish, described as “fairly unsuccessful” by Ying due to low returns. Afterward, some farmers opted to revive black tiger cultivation, encouraged by demand from processing plants. This paid off when successful black tiger farmers enjoyed good returns. “Good returns continued even as prices for vannamei shrimp crashed globally in the first half of 2018,” said Ying.
Source: Aquaculture Spectrum