Cheaper locally grown shrimps in the offing

Customers of Saipan Aquaculture Co., Inc., which produces the Marianas Sweet Shrimp, will soon benefit from a price markdown, thanks to reduced production cost since they started producing their own post-larvae or baby shrimps.

Mel Catalma, Saipan Aquaculture operations manager, said that they made their first harvest of post-larvae shrimps in November 2010. They did their fourth harvest last Saturday.

“Our target is to produce 200,000 post-larvae shrimps per month to sustain our target production,” he said.

Catalma disclosed that Saipan Aquaculture used to import these post-larvae shrimps, costing them some $3,000 per month.

Catalma said they learned about shrimp larvae hatchery production in their efforts to lower expenditures, noting that Saipan Aquaculture wants to be “vertically integrated” and not dependent on the import of post-larvae shrimps.

Their hatchery production supervisor, Fredson Huervana, recently attended the Vannamei 101 training in Thailand.

Vanname 101 specializes in providing technical service to shrimp hatchery and broodstock development programs throughout Asia. It uses techniques and management strategies that are essentially a blend of the best techniques from the East and the West.

According to Catalma, their post-larvae shrimps are the product of interbreeding six different foundation stocks or grandparent lines of shrimps considered among the best breeds in the world.

“Since we have our own growout [tanks], we can monitor these interbreed offsprings. So far, they exhibit great shrimp quality,” he said.

Catalma said the savings from the import cost are particularly significant since the community continues to suffer from economic recession.

“We plan to pass on these savings to our consumers,” he told Saipan Tribune. “Our plan is to drop our prices before the end of the year to make our fresh shrimp competitive with the frozen shrimp available in the market.”

Catalma said the Marianas Sweet Shrimp will be available at reduced cost at the Sabalu and Tuesday markets, Triple J Super Fresh, Joeten store chains, and possibly other stores on island.

With the success of their shrimp hatchery production, Catalma added that they have already received inquiries from potential post-larvae markets in Guam, Palau, and the U.S. mainland.