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A fisheries employee collects juvenile prawns from a pond on the Twickenham Park hatchery as a part of the Nationwide Fisheries Authority’s pilot challenge. The initiative helps the usage of polyculture methods to develop prawns and tilapia aspect by aspect.
Jamaica is taking a calculated step in direction of diversifying its seafood business with the profitable in-house manufacturing of post-larval freshwater prawns — a transfer that would place the nation to faucet into the high-value international marketplace for shrimp and scale back reliance on imports.
The Nationwide Fisheries Authority (NFA), backed by the Manufacturing Incentive Programme (PIP), just lately produced a batch of 15,000 post-larval Macrobrachium rosenbergii at its hatchery in Twickenham Park, St Catherine. The prawns at the moment are being raised in on-site ponds as a part of a pilot challenge designed to judge the industrial viability of prawn farming at scale.
“We’re positioning native farmers to enter shrimp farming to diversify and enhance the profitability of their aquaculture enterprise,” mentioned Alex Clark, senior analysis officer on the NFA. “Freshwater prawn is a extremely sought-after product internationally, and demand stays sturdy in Jamaica, significantly inside the lodge and hospitality sectors.”
The initiative is a part of a broader strategic push by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining to cut back Jamaica’s seafood import invoice, which topped US$200 million lately, and to stimulate the agricultural financial system via aquaculture.
Whereas tilapia stays the most typical farmed fish in Jamaica, the inclusion of freshwater prawns via polyculture methods — rising shrimp and tilapia in the identical pond — provides farmers a approach to enhance yield and revenue per hectare.
“The long-term imaginative and prescient is to broaden the business, assist native farmers, and finally place Jamaica as a serious participant in prawn farming on a bigger scale,” mentioned Dr Gavin Bellamy, CEO of the NFA.
The prawn pilot follows the ministry’s announcement of a $574-million funding in a nationwide tilapia hatchery, at present beneath development in Twickenham Park, aimed toward enhancing fingerling high quality, decreasing illness, and reducing operational prices via solar-powered infrastructure.
Nonetheless, a lot is driving on the success of the freshwater prawn challenge. Jamaica beforehand had makes an attempt at shrimp farming that faltered on account of regulatory challenges, inconsistent provide chains, and infrastructure gaps. However sector gamers insist the issue was by no means demand — it was provide readiness and value inefficiencies.
“Locations like St Elizabeth, recognized for his or her peppered shrimp, have struggled to keep up constant provide,” Agriculture Minister Floyd Inexperienced mentioned at a current sector briefing. “We now imagine the circumstances exist to rebuild the sector.”
If the pilot proves scalable, the NFA might open the hatchery’s output to personal farmers islandwide. It might unlock new earnings streams for small farmers, particularly if coupled with coaching, cold-chain infrastructure, and market entry via agro-parks or cooperative distribution.
For now, the State company says it would monitor development charges, mortality, feed conversion, and stocking densities earlier than ramping up manufacturing or increasing distribution channels.
Globally, the shrimp business is valued at greater than US$60 billion, pushed by lodge, restaurant, and export markets. In Jamaica, demand for prawns far outpaces native provide, with imports primarily filling the hole in supermarkets, resort kitchens, and eating places.
— Karena Bennett
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