The Pacific white shrimp, Penaeus vannanei, native of the Western Pacific coast of Latin American countries was introduced into Asia experimentally during 1978-79(with SPF vannamei farm trials starting around late nineties) and commercially since 1996 into Mainland China and Taiwan, followed by most of the other Asian countries in 2000-01, with the main reason being the perceived poor performance, slow growth rate and disease susceptibility of the major indigenous cultured shrimp species, P.vannamei culture industry has seen a rapid expansion in the last few years mainly due to the SPF vannamei selectively red for faster growth, and the production of P.vannamei has surpassed that of traditional native cultured species in China, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. In India, two private firms were permitted for the import of specific pathogen free P.vannamei brood stock by the Ministry of Agriculture on experimental basis in the year 2003. With the continued lobbying by the private sector, and to boost India’s aquaculture productions, the Ministry in the year 2007, conducted Import Risk Analysis (IRA) with Central Institute of Brackish water Aquaculture (CIBA) playing the lead role. A dedicated quarantine centre for P.vannamei called the “Aquatic Quarantine facility for P.Vannamei” (AQF), was established in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, by the technical arm of the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture(RGCA) under Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), Ministry of Commerce & industries, Government of India permitted the entrepreneurs for culture of the new species, P.vannamei in India, under the policy guide lines jointly developed by CIBA and Coastal Aquaculture Authority (CAA), with best management practices for seed production and farming. Culture of Pacific white shrimp gained popularity and was taken up by the Indian farmers and the production witnessed significant upward trend since 2009.Total farmed shrimp production of 4,34,558.7 tons in 2014-15 and frozen shrimp exports both in quantity and earnings value recorded four times higher over the years. Andhra Pradesh has been leading in P.vannamei farming contributing nearly 80% of Indian production. Despite this phenomenal growth, disease issues continue to confront the shrimp farming sector, significantly affecting farm productivity and profitability of aqua-business within India and also among the most shrimp farming nations in Southeast Asia and Latin America.
Source: Aqua Aquaria