Thailand Shrimp Farming from Boom to Bust, to a Sustainable Future

Among intensively cultivated aquatic species, shrimp has one of the highest values and is the most important fishery commodity traded.

In 2008, the FAO estimated that world production of shrimp under aquaculture and capture was about six million tonnes. Of this, an estimated 60 percent was traded, bringing in over US$11 billion in export revenue for producing countries.

But close on the heels of shrimp's enormous economic benefit have been questions raised on the issue of sustainability, notably the impact of farming practices on the environment and natural resources.

These controversies have not been lost on Thailand, the world's largest producer and exporter of shrimp. The ‘bust' cycles that followed the boom in Thailand's shrimp sector closely shadow the collapse of the industry from heavy demands that unsound practices had placed on the environment, leading to diseases and a host of other problems.



Shrimp farming in Thailand began with semi-intensive monoculture species, mainly black tiger shrimp or P. monodon in the early 1970s.

Significant yield increases were seen from these early systems which utilised small ponds enclosures and the introduction of hatchery-raised fry, supplementary feeding and limited mechanical water management. This lifted the profile of shrimp farming and led to its ‘boom years' in the decade starting from the late 1980s.

With the influx of foreign direct investment, particularly from Taiwan, training and technology inputs, yields rose from 0.45 to 2.13 tonnes per hectare between 1987 and 1999.

Crop failures

But environmental pollution, depleted water supplies, changes in water salinity and disease problems soon led to massive crop failures along the central Chao Phraya Delta regions as well as coastal areas in 1990.

The second bust period for the industry in 1996 led to a sharp drop in production, leaving in its wake mounting debts for farmers and a degraded environment particularly, the destruction of mangrove swamps.

Since then, in the early millennia, Thailand has moved from P. monodon to P. vannamei, or the Pacific white shrimp to counter the disease problems commonly found in the former, such as Yellow Head and White Spot Symdrome Virus.

Despite its significant economic contribution, shrimp farms in Thailand are mainly small holder operations of under 1.5 hectares in size. Given the dominance of small-scale shrimp farms in total production, it is imperative that policies to improve sustainability are targeted at addressing the needs and concerns of such farms.

A study carried out by the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand found that lack of of Technology in Thailand found that lack of technology in Thailand found that lack of knowledge on standards, insufficient technical assistance program, assess to credit for investment, lack of information on market and declining market price of shrimp are the major issues to deal with to promote adoption of standards for responsible shrimp farming among the small-scale shrimp farmers.



Research into shrimp farming

Research on the shrimp farming industry has revealed that where methods are highly intensive, production becomes susceptible to internal operational problems such as diseases and water quality, and to external factors such as inadequate water sources and the weather.

As a result, the financial risks from such systems are huge. Coupled with declining prices of shrimp in global markets, there has been a shift away from such highly intensive pond systems to semi-intensive systems across many parts of Thailand. With strict international rules governing the quality of exported shrimp, particularly with regards to acceptable levels of chemicals residues and antibiotics, this has encouraged the industry to move along in the right direction.



Regulating farming practices

To address these issues, the sector has identified several economic instruments to regulate farming practices.

For instance, differentiated price permits were proposed to enforce specific zoning regions for shrimp farming activities. Emphasis has also been placed on proper farm management practices to reduce the risk of polluting emissions and which were suited to the type of specie of shrimp cultured. Research in low polluting and cost effective feeds has also led to benefits for both the environment as well as farmer.

Effort to eradicate diseases has largely focused on those diseases which have a direct impact due to losses through mortality.

Until recently, there has been little attention paid to non-fatal diseases although the economic costs are high. These are diseases that affect productivity by reducing growth rates or affecting the quality and value of the shrimp produced and can impact profitability significantly.

Health programs have since changed to include also non-lethal diseases and their syndromes. The use of specific pathogenfree (SPF) and specific pathogen-resistant (SPR) stocks associated with the popular P vannamei species has enabled multi-cropping and high-stocking densities, capable of producing up to 20-30 tonnes per hectare per crop.

The control of broodstock to ensure that only true SPF species are supplied, as opposed to the use of ‘home grown' F1 broodstock, has also led to lower levels of mortality, and greater success for the Thai shrimp industry.


This article was originally published in the magazine INTERNATIONAL AQUAFEED (Volume 13 Issue 4 2010) in July-August 2010 by Perendale Publishers (UK). This contribution is greatly appreciated by Engormix.com and its members.