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Shrimp Culture
More black tiger shrimp from Gujarat At SEG, Mindhola Foods shares its plan to farm large size black tiger shrimp for European markets.
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n 2021, India’s vertically integrated seafood company, Mindhola Foods LLC in Surat, Gujarat, exported 1,500 tonnes of farmed shrimp to various countries. This volume comprised 1,000 tonnes of white shrimp Penaeus vannamei and 500 tonnes of black tiger shrimp Penaeus monodon. At the Seafood Expo Global (SEG) held in April in Barcelona, Spain, Hetal Shantila Patel, CEO was at its booth, within the Indian pavilion to tell the story of their Oceanus brand. The company has two farms and Hetal announced that with the expansion of the farming area by 100ha, it will farm more of the black tiger shrimp. “Although our own farms produce vannamei shrimp, which totalled 127 tonnes in 2021 after remodelling the culture method and introducing a state-of-the-art nursery, I believe that my farm is not actually amenable to vannamei shrimp farming. White faeces disease (WFD) and Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP) are particularly challenging, although I try to keep water as clean as possible to prevent accumulation of spores of the microsporidian.”
With regards to farming challenges, Hetal listed the high cost of feeds, especially with increasing prices of soybean meal. Costs of feeds have increased 5% from the last cycle to INR110/kg (USD1.40/kg). Mindhola’s farms use 10,000 tonnes annually of GMO-free feeds from Charoen Pokphand India. It works with 200 associated and contract farmers covering 1,000ha of ponds. It supplies raw materials, feeds, and other farming supplies to the farmers to ensure the delivery of high-quality shrimp. A recent addition is a freezing facility with an installed capacity of 75 tonnes/day. It targets premium quality head-on and shell-on shrimp. Its USP (unique selling proposition) is to deliver live shrimp from the farms to the processing plant. Mindhola Foods has certifications from Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) as well as FSSC 22000 and BRCFood, ready for the European shrimp markets.
The farming of the black tiger shrimp will be at low densities such as 10-15PL/m2. Mindhola targets dedicated markets in Japan and Europe for large size shrimp (size 17-18/kg). Hetal said, “Why not, as we have good water quality and high salinity, and we can stock 10PL/m2 to produce large size products. We have more than 30 years of farming experience, which has led us to produce quality shrimp in a sustainable way.” There are also market challenges. “We produce vannamei shrimp of all sizes, from 20-80/kg shrimp. Nowadays, most of our vannamei shrimp (about 80%) go to Japan and New Zealand. Exports to the US have decreased. In February/March 2022, we also saw higher prices than in 2021. Our challenge here in Europe, as we observed at this seafood show is that offer prices for Indian vannamei shrimp is USD2.00 higher than shrimp from Ecuador.” Although plans are underway to farm more of the black tiger shrimp, Hetal said that he expected a one-month delay for the arrival of post larvae and a delivery of only 10% of his requirement. In July, Hetal updated that stocking took place in May and June, each with 5 million post larvae and stocking was continuing in other farms in Gujarat as and when post larvae become available. “There is a high demand for black tiger post larvae from domesticated broodstock originating from Madagascar. Only a selected number of hatcheries have permission to import broodstock and produce post larvae. Farmers in Gujarat expect vannamei production to be less in 2022, down by 60%, since many are converting to farming the black tiger shrimp.”
July/August 2022 AQUA Culture Asia Pacific
In April, Hetal Shantila Patel, CEO Mindhola Foods LLC (seated) and his team, Zubin Metha, on his right, Jatin Patel on his left, attended the Seafood Expo Global (SEG) held in Barcelona, Spain. The target was new markets in Europe for its black tiger shrimp as well as vannamei shrimp as it expands production.
