Diversify Economy Through Aquaculture
MUARA, 06 November 2008,
Thursday - Brunei can be a prospective and ideal training ground for
future aquaculture industries due to its bilingual population and
strategic location in Southeast Asia, a foreign expert said yesterday.
Brunei can also make an impact in the aquaculture industry through
competition in special products such as the upcoming project of
developing high quality SPF Black Tiger Shrimps, despite its small land
area to become one of the largest shrimp producers in the world, said
George Chamberlain, renowned technical director of America's Integrated
Aquaculture International.
During a tour of Brunei aquaculture facilities with delegates of the
International Workshop on Shrimp Nutrition, Chamberlain told The Brunei
Times that the Broodstock Development Centre in Serasa offers "some of
the most impressive facilities in the world".
These facilities include primary and secondary quarantine facilities,
nuclear breeding centres, hatcheries, grow out ponds and nutrition
facilities.
The centre started operating in April 2006 for the breeding of the
Specific Pathogen Free/Viral Free Rostris or more popularly known as the
Mexican Blue Shrimp Broodstock. A broodstock is a group of that are
sexually mature individuals that are kept separate from the rest of the
brood for breeding purposes.
The tour then headed over to the Seiwa Hatchery. According to
Chamberlain, the hatchery has a maximum productivity rate of up to 12
million shrimps a month, however, currently they are only averaging
approximately six million for low scale productions.
These shrimp spawns are then either sold to farmers once they reach one
centimetre in length (in about 21 days) or exported to other countries.
The final stop of the day was the tour of the Aquatic Animal Health
Research and Services Centre. The centre offers services such as the
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and histological analysis to scan for
nine different viruses in the shrimps. These services are free for local
farmers every month (five shrimps a pond, one pond a month limit) but
foreign institutions can purchase this service for approximately $370.
Brazilian Francisco Olbrich, research and developer director of Guabi, a
world-renowned company for making animal feed, said that he liked what
he saw.
"The people are really doing a super job (and) with the help of the
local guys, Brunei will be able to produce better (feed) and more
efficiently for exportation to provide revenue."
Hjh Rosinah Hj Yussof, a senior officer of aquaculture in Brunei who has
been working in the field for more than 20 years, said that shrimp
nutrition workshop was a great way to improve Brunei's knowledge of
aquaculture but was also as an opportunity to boost for tourism.
This is because a large number of the 60 delegates that took part in the
workshop were from a total of 15 foreign countries, including the USA,
Mexico, Peru, Brazil and Canada.
The tour was co-organised by the Integrated Aquaculture International
and Brunei's Department of Fisheries rounded up the final day of the
three-day workshop held from November 4-6.
- Courtesy of
the Brunei Times -
