Market Wet

an attempt by the Ecuadorians to ride on positive market sentiment & inflate their prices. Most packers would accept bids 10-20 cents below what is on offer. We are heading into one of the main Ecuadorian harvest seasons and farmers should have plenty of shrimp to sell.

Weak demand is not being helped by the US. By all accounts consumption over the holiday season was underwhelming. Importers are still reporting massive inventories. If these are not sold, most importers are restricting themselves to buying only what is needed. This will likely continue until after lent. Hopefully, there will be decent Lenten sales to boost production.

The one bright spot is that Europe seems to be recovering from its lethargy of the past 6 months. The euro has rebounded and with the expected influx of Chinese tourists this summer some importers are starting to become more bullish with their imports. The sentiment however is very mixed. There are still many who are fearing that this is a temporary rebound.

Overall, the situation looks slightly better than it was 3 months ago. The opening of China is largely a positive sign. We can expect plenty of capital injection into ailing markets which should benefit us all.

Being in a tropical climate with 2 seasons, dry and wet seasons, makes shrimp farming in Indonesia have its own unique challenge. A young farmer from West Java, Bobby Indra Gunawan, said that compared to the dry season, the cultivation process in the wet season is way more challenging because the dynamic weather patterns affect the water quality significantly. Generally, Bobby said, the water quality in the wet season tends to decrease, therefore increasing the stress level of the shrimp and susceptibility to disease.

Indonesia’s climate is currently shifting to having a longer wet season than the dry season. According to Drh. Narendra Santika Hartana, Shrimp & Fish Health Supervisor of PT. Suri Tani Pemuka, due to a longer wet season, we are now experiencing higher rainfall. As a result, plankton population instability and dominance often occur in the pond. Whereas plankton is one of the important factors in shrimp farming. “Fluctuations in the plankton population and domination can affect the shrimp to be immunocompromised, which means that the shrimp population in the pond will be more vulnerable to disease,” Narendra explained.

Wayan Agus Edhy, Technical Advisor of PT Delos Teknologi Maritim Jaya, confirmed this information. According to him, shrimp cultivation in the dry season is less challenging because the temperature is warmer, and also the sunlight’s inten-