The past few years have seen a considerable growth in the otherwise modest market of shrimp farming. Currently there are five countries that contribute the maximum share to the global shrimp market. These countries are Thailand, China, Ecuador, Vietnam and India. Among these countries Ecuador is a leading producer in the western hemisphere. The technology of shrimp was first evolved in North America in the year 1950. Since then the shrimp market is evolving at a great speed. Shrimp market contributed almost USD 1.1 billion to the economy of Ecuador in the 2010. This case study gives a detailed analysis of the growth of the shrimp market and the various strategies adopted in the region.

Ecuador is an American country that has a long coastline of 2200 km and ventured in the shrimp market during the year of 1969. It started off with capturing of seeds from the mouth of the river (estuary) and then cultivating them into earth ponds. Here they are maintained for a period of 4-8 months to get a marketable size. Typically, these ponds are spread over an area of 10-50 hectares, currently there are almost 185000 hectares of shrimp farms in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Shrimp farming in the region was basically developed across various coastal land consisting of salt pans as preferred location. Shrimp farming is governed by the weather conditions, for example, the rainy and winter season the temperature is high but the salinity is low and vice-versa during the summer season. In spite of these conditions the Ecuador market is growing and is currently leading the Latin America market. However, research indicated that extensive farming resulted in loss of mangroves and wetland losses.

During the period of 1970-80’s, there was a change observed in the farming methodology. Semi-intensive techniques that included use of more water and Filipinos were being used. During the mentioned period, post larvae (PL’s), collected from the wild by fishermen. This was the time when almost 90, 000 people were involved in this business. However, in the year of 1984 there was a scarcity of wild PL’s due to Nino Phenomena. This scarcity caused people to innovate and build their own hatcheries. By the late 80’s there were many hatcheries build across the Peninsula de Santa Helena. Most of this development was done with the help of local Ecuadorian investors. Incidents like seagull syndrome during 1989 and Taura Syndrome in 1993 did not hamper the overall market production. The White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) infection in the shrimp market during the 1990-2000 was the main motivator in changing the industry dynamics.

During the earlier years there was an ongoing debate to work with wild Farm or hatchery PL’s. This was mainly due to the reason that all hatcheries worked with wild farms and load the maturation tanks. Many farmers prepared the wild PL type of process due to the ease of counting with local resources, as opposed to getting it done from a government organization. During these times various experiments were being conducted by farmers to provide optimum results. In development however there were no plans for domestication and genetic selection, there were companies who did try to bring the use of animals SPF, from Hawaii but that also failed miserably.

Post the outbreak of TSV, the need for new innovative measures become evident. The intensity grew during the end of 1999-2000, owing to severe occurrence of WSSV infection. The impact was severe and was almost causing the end of shrimp industry. Since most of the available land was already being used as hatcheries it was important to re-use the existing infrastructure. As the first step, the major groups reduced the cost by sharing the infrastructure facilities like packaging plants, and hatcheries. Closing of the units that were not operational was another strategy that was followed. Importing of livestock, frozen elements, use of wild brood stock and wild larvae that might carry disease causing vectors, was stopped immediately.

The production control process was divided into 4 steps for better control on the health. These four steps were

• Hatchery for a period of 15-18 days
• Nursery for a period of 15 days
• Pre growing during a period of 15-25 days, mostly in intensive and covered raceways
• Growth process in large earthen ponds for a period of 90-120 days during which it would reach harvest size.

Brood stock and genetics:

Most of the pathogens are present in farm environment, and hence it was important for the local breeder to identify and select strains. The main criteria for selecting strain was survival in extreme conditions and the second involved fastest growers and reproducers in the hatcheries. Based on this idea, there were various plans implemented, family programs which involved selection of first animals from ponds based on their survival, health analysis and physical conditions. Families were produced through two ways and resistance towards main viruses was continuously monitored. After 15 days the families are conditioned with the help of bleach and then transferred to maturation tanks. Probiotics and stress reducers are used to ensure high quality family production. The most active nauplii are rinsed and transferred to the maturation tank, where it is further filtered and UV sterilized and then disinfected by soaking in iodine bath.

Conclusion:

With the help of streamlined process like brood stock and genetics, Hatchery system, pre growing in covered raceways and many other technical procedures the shrimp farming industry slowly came back into business. Though the threat of harmful viruses like WSSV is still present and might again proof to be fatal. After working with various measures like gravid females, Ecuadorian shrimp farmers realized that the best and most secure methodology is domestication. The fact that if the livestock is grown in the farm, it might risk of unknown diseases to the shrimps. However with the help of technology and defined process the Ecuador shrimp market has grown and is currently responsible for contributing a major portion to the country’s economy.