Philippines has announced that it has resumed the exports of white shrimps or vannamei to the US, China and Korea
Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) director Asis Perez said that General Santos City, Negros, Cebu and Batangas had started shipping containers of white shrimps to other countries. Each 40-feet container has the capacity to carry 26 metric tonnes of white shrimps, he added.
Perez said, “We started to ship three months ago, and this will continue monthly. Last month, we exported 50 containers and this month, we will ship 60 containers,” Perez said.
Perez said the value of vannamei exports was estimated at US$7.5mn a month.
Pacific white shrimp or ‘Litopenaeus vannamei’ is a variety of prawn found and farmed in Pacific countries.
The Philippines had earlier stopped exporting white shrimps to concentrate on the production of black tiger prawns, or ‘Monodon’.
BFAR earlier imposed a ban on the importation of live shrimp species to protect the industry from the early mortality syndrome (EMS), which is prevalent in neighbouring countries, according to Manila Standard Today.
The agriculture department also imposed stricter sanitary requirements on hatcheries in a bid to revive the local shrimp industry.
