Aqua Culture Asia Pacific September/October 2022

Rise in black tiger shrimp farming

At GSF, panels reflect on production trends and markets for the increase in volumes

The inaugural Global Shrimp Forum (GSF) held recently from September 7- 8 in Utrecht, the Netherlands dedicated a half-day session on the latest in black tiger shrimp Penaeus monodon farming. Robins McIntosh, Executive Vice President, Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF) Public Company, said that the rise in black tiger shrimp production in several countries, particularly in China, was due largely to the availability of CPF’s domesticated specific pathogen free (SPF) broodstock. On the revitalisation of black tiger shrimp farming in India, Dhaval Contractor, Partner, Vaishnavi Aquatech, said that the increase in India has been with post larvae from imported Moana broodstock. The future post larvae will be produced at its new broodstock multiplication centre (BMC) which began operations on September 2, 2022.

Demand has been escalating in India since the company introduced SPF black tiger post larvae in 2021. Dhaval said that Vaishnavi Aquatech is one of the companies approved by the Coastal Aquaculture Authority to import SPF black tiger broodstock into India. It started with an initial supply of 300 million post larvae to farms in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat and the company has expanded to six hatcheries in 2022. Vaishnavi Aquatech has already sold one billion post larvae in 2022. An associated company, Shree Sai Krupa Aquaculture runs several shrimp farms in Gujarat.

The resurgence in black tiger farming is not only due to the new genetics but also because black tiger shrimp tolerates Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP) and white faeces syndrome (WFS) better than the vannamei shrimp; in addition, in India, it is also tolerant against running mortality syndrome. Black tiger shrimp has also found its place during the hot summer months in Gujarat where high temperatures prevented the farming of vannamei shrimp. McIntosh said, “Other push factors are higher market value and that its farming requires less capex.” He added that at present one disadvantage is that growth lines of new vannamei lines, exceed that of black tiger shrimp lines.

On the sidelines of the session, Dhaval emphasised that with these SPF black tiger shrimp post larvae, farmers in Gujarat now have the possibility to have a second crop as well. Furthermore, farmers in Odisha and West Bengal have indicated interest in black tiger shrimp farming. He added that ponds in South Andhra Pradesh with high salinity are suited for black tiger shrimp farming and the low salinity ponds in northern districts of Andhra Pradesh are more suitable for vannamei shrimp farming.

New genetics

McIntosh said that “taming the tiger” took several generations, with initial survivals at 30% and improving to 85% for the latest stocks, which also turned in low coefficient of variations. Selective breeding of CPF’s SPF black tiger shrimp began in 2014 and rose from an average daily growth (ADG) of 0.3g in 2013 to 0.50g in 2021 and survival rates increasing from 81% to 93% by 2021.

There has been progress in the Moana black tiger genetics since its first introduction to India in 2008-2009 and in 2021-2022 when compared against post larvae of wild broodstock. According to Dhaval, the Moana genetics is now the 19th generation reaching improved growth through selective breeding to 50g in 120 days. The AWG (average weekly growth) is 4g (Table 1).