Shift from Black Tiger
to White shrimp five years ago, oversupply, return to Black Tiger planned,
but industry wants Thai government help
By Jon Fernquest
There are two types of shrimp raised by shrimp
hatcheries in Thailand: smaller white shrimp
(litopenaeus vannamei) and larger black-tiger
shrimp (penaeus monodon).
Black-tiger can grow so big that there are only five or seven shrimp in one kilogramme compared to 40 for white shrimp.
Black-tiger shrimp are also more tasty and meaty, but more expensive. They are considered a premium-grade shrimp bought by people with more money to spend.
Over the last five years raising white shrimp has become more popular than raising black-tiger shrimp. Farms which raise white shrimp yield as much as four tonnes per rai versus only a 500 to 600 kilogramme yield for black-tiger shrimp.
White shrimp also have a higher survival rate. More can be raised in the same amount of space than black-tiger shrimp. In one rai a shrimp farmer can only raise 80,000 black-tiger shrimp versus 120,000 to 200,000 white shrimp.
Over the last five years Thailand's shrimp industry has shifted from producing black-tiger shrimp to white shrimp. From 2002 to 2007 shrimp exports rose from 200,000 to 356,080 tonnes. Over this period black-tiger shrimp dropped from 85% of exports to 6.7% of exports. White shrimp exports rose as black-tiger exports fell.
Over the past five years an oversupply of white shrimp has developed. From 2002 to 2008, white shrimp production rose from 200,000 to over 520,000.
With oversupply, the price of white shrimp fell drastically. As prices fell, the shrimp business became more difficult with sales no longer covering production costs for many farms.
Small shrimp farms were the first to go out of business. With many shrimp farms going out of business, industry concentration has increased, with only 100 large shrimp farms still existing in Phuket, for instance. In the end, many Thai shrimp farmers left Thailand to work at hatcheries in other countries such as Bangladesh which has already shifted back to black-tiger shrimp farming.
Nowadays, many believe that black tiger prawns offer higher profits than white shrimp. Many shrimp farmers in Thailand want to return to the good old days of black-tiger shrimps and they have asked for help from the government. Phuket is the best place to start because it is a popular tourist destination with a very high daily shrimp consumption of 10 tonnes per day. Farmers have suggested zoning and dividing shrimp growing areas into specialised areas for the cultivation of white and black-tiger shrimp.
Food processors and exporters prefer white shrimp because they cost less. They say if there is demand for black-tiger shrimp they are ready to start exporting more. Some critics say that shrimp-feed producers are to blame for the problem. Claiming that feed producers have persuaded farmers to raise the white shrimp, "which consume as much feed as the black-tiger species, especially during the first two months in hatcheries."
(Source: Bangkok Post, business, WALAILAK KEERATIPIPATPONG, page B3, 24-06-08, temp-link)
Vocabulary:
breed
- when animals are kept and raised to have babies for sale สายพันธุ์
shrimp hatchery - a shrimp farm that breeds shrimp
and raises them until they are old enough to move to a regular shrimp
farm (See Wikipedia)
ฟาร์มเพาะเลี้ยงลูกกุ้ง
shrimp raisers, shrimp farm - a farm where shrimp
are raised until they are ready to be sold as food (See Wikipedia)
กุ้งเลี้ยง
shrimp
- a small shellfish that can be fried, boiled, and eaten as food (See Wikipedia)
กุ้งเล็ก
prawn - large shrimp (See Wikipedia)
กุ้งใหญ่
black-tiger
shrimp, penaeus monodon, black tiger prawn, giant
tiger prawn, leader prawn, sugpo, and grass prawn - one of
the most widely grown types of prawn or prawn in the world,
certainlythe largest, as long as 36 centimeters long and weighing up to
650 grams (See Wikipedia)
กุ้งแก้ว
white shrimp, litopenaeus
vannamei, whiteleg shrimp - the most common kind of
prawn raised on farms (See Wikipedia)
กุ้งแชบ๊วย
premium-grade
shrimp -
high quality and expensive shrimp กุ้งเกรดพรีเมี่ยม (ขนาดใหญ่ คุณภาพดี)
yield - the amount produced per rai
used in farming ให้ผลผลิตต่อไร่
shifted from X to Y - changed from activity X to
activity Y เปลี่ยนจาก ก ไป ข
oversupply - to much on the market,
prices drop, many go out of business การมีสินค้าล้นตลาด
fell drastically - decreased by a lot
ล้มไม่เป็นท่า
sales no longer covering
production costs
- business loses money because money in from sales is less than money
out to pay costs of doing business
ธุรกิจขาดทุนเนื่องจากยอดขายไม่คุ้มทุน
go out of business - lose a lot of money, so
stop doing business ปิดกิจการ (เนื่องจากธุรกิจล้มเหลว)
industry concentration - a few large firms in the
industry (instead of many small firms) บริษัทใหญ่ๆ
สองสามบริษัท
the good old days - the time in the past when
everything was much better than it is now (note: may or may not
actually exist) ในสมัยก่อน
zoning - diving an area into smaller
areas, each with a specialised use (for example, this part of town is
zoned as a commercial area with shops, that area of town as a
residential area with homes) การแบ่งโซน
specialised areas - areas used by everyone for
one special activity เฉพาะบางพื้นที่
cultivation - growing crops or fish
การเพาะเลี้ยง การเพาะปลูก