Alvin Henderson

Royal Mayan Shrimp Farms in Belize

On April 2, 2008, at the World Wildlife Fund’s Shrimp Dialogue Meeting in Belize, I chatted with Alvin Henderson, managing director and shareholder of Royal Mayan Shrimp Farms.

Shrimp News: How did you get involved in shrimp farming?

Alvin Henderson: After attending college at Whittier College in the USA, I returned home to Belize and met Mike Dunker, who owns Aqua Mar Belize, Ltd., a 1,000-acre shrimp farm.  He and I became close friends.  He’s still one of my closest business associates.  I saw what he was doing with shrimp farming and became interested.  At the time my brother Irv Henderson and some of his friends, who were in grad school at Cornell University, came to Belize and we developed what then became the company’s business plan. For me shrimp farming was a business idea that just mushroomed into reality.  That’s how I got involved, about eight years ago.

Shrimp News: How big is Royal Mayan Shrimp Farms?

Alvin Henderson: 319 acres.  We have semi-intensive and intensive ponds.  We stock at 30 to 35 animals per square meter in the semi-intensive ponds and at 65 per square meter in the intensive ponds.  The semi-intensive ponds are designed to carry about 3,500 pounds per acre and the intensive pond about 6,000 to 7,000 pounds per acre.  We get our feed from two companies in Guatemala: Areca and Agri Brands Purina, which is a Cargill company.  Sometimes we use a local source, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), but we’re not buying from them right now.  We’re a production operation.  We market our shrimp jointly with Aqua Mar.  Some of our shrimp goes to the Caribbean market, the USA, Mexico and also to the European market.  We have always worked jointly with Aqua Mar on marketing.  In Belize, there are several hatcheries and processing plants, so we keep it simple and stick to the farming end of the business.

Shrimp News: Do you do partial harvests?

Alvin Henderson: We have in the past.  It’s a strategy that we saw used in Mexico and Guatemala.  But when we did partial harvests, we didn’t lower water levels or seine the pond, which stresses the animals too much.  We used cast nets.  We continue to play around with partial harvests, just to see how they might benefit us.  Our partial harvests were marketed in Mexico, not Europe.

Shrimp News: Are you a full-time farmer?

Alvin Henderson: I have other business interests and a partner in the farm, so shrimp farming is not the only thing I do, but it’s my passion and the thing I love to do the most.

Shrimp News: Can you make any money with shrimp prices at such low levels?

Alvin Henderson: When we started in 2000 and for several years thereafter, we did quite well.  The last two years have been very challenging.  Our markets were in  Europe, and Europe was not the best place to be at the time.  But all businesses face hurdles, and we’ll cross this one that we now face.  We continue to make adjustments, and we expect to be in a stronger financial position in the short term.

Shrimp News: What are your plans for the farm?

Alvin Henderson: In an industry with very low margins, it’s very important that you are not heavily laden with debt.  We want to improve our capital structure, meaning less debt, and we want to adopt new technologies more rapidly than we did in the past.  I think both are critical to our survival and competitive position in the world.  We have a lot to learn from other shrimp farmers, who are doing clever, innovative, inexpensive things that we don’t even know about yet.

Shrimp News: What do you think of the World Wildlife Fund’s approach to shrimp farming standards?

Alvin Henderson: It’s been a very productive meeting.  Nothing that I’ve heard has struck me as a surprise.  There has been a long build-up to this meeting.  We’ve been in conversation with WWF for perhaps as long as three years.  It’s not something new to us.  WWF saw Belize as a good place to start because we had a profile that could adapt to its standards.  It’s no mistake that this meeting is being held in Belize; I think it stems from the fact that WWF thinks we can comply with its standards.  It’s always good to get together with the NGOs to see how they perceive the shrimp farming community.  We shared a lot of ideas and should be able to arrive at a place of consensus.  We have seen the process, we are part of the process, and I agree with the standards.  That’s much better than being told what to do by a third party that you have not had any association with.

Information: Alvin Henderson, Managing Director, Royal Mayan Shrimp Farms, Ltd., Savannah Area, Independence Village, Stann Creek District, Belize, Central America (phone 501-520-3055, fax 501-520-3011, email alclaudia@btl.net).

Source: Alvin Henderson, interview by Bob Rosenberry, Shrimp News International.  Belize City. Belize.  April 2, 2008.

Country Reports

Australia

Ridley Feeds Receives Buyout Offer

Graincorp Limited, an agribusiness with grain storage, handling and export terminals on the east coast of Australia, has offered to buy Ridley Corporation Limited, the largest feed company in Australia, for $415 million.  Ridley’s AgriProducts division produces shrimp feeds in Queensland, Australia.

Source: AllAboutFeed.net.  Graincrop offers to buy Ridley.  May 16, 2008.

Ecuador

Dredging in the Gulf of Guayaquil

A dredging project is underway in the Port of Guayaquil that has raised some environmental concerns.  Cesar Monge, president of the National Aquaculture Chamber, said the shrimp industry is not opposed to the dredging project because when it’s finished it will improve navigation for shrimp farmers in and around the port; however, he thinks that a study on the environmental impact of dredging should be carried out.

Alex Villacrés, president of the Port Authority, said that the port hired the Army’s Oceanographic Institute to carry out environmental studies on dredging in 1998 and 2001.  “We are not in the position to hire any more parties in order to carry out another environmental impact study.  This will only repeat results that are known and have been demonstrated over and over [that]...dredging operations...do not cause any problems to the environment or to the shrimp sector,” Villacrés said.

Source: Seafood.com (an online, subscription-based, fisheries news service).  Guayaquil shrimp industry concerned about possible effects of port dredging project (translated by Angel Rubio Canas).  Ken Coons (phone 781-861-1441, email kencoons@seafood.com).  Editor and Publisher, John Sackton (phone 781-861-1441, email jsackton@seafood.com).  May 16, 2008.

Philippines

Shrimp Farming Industry Needs Help from the Government

On May 16, 2008, Roberto Gatuslao, president of PhilShrimp Inc., an organization of shrimp farmers, said increases in fuel prices and the stronger peso are hurting the Philippine shrimp farming industry.  He said shrimp farmers urgently need government help to boost shrimp exports.  The Philippines does not have a processing plant for producing value-adding products for export, said Gatuslao.  “We need industrial facilities to boost the value of our shrimp products for export.  We need to convince the government that it should help the industry because shrimp exports could earn the country a lot.”

Gatuslao said that the industry’s problems would be tackled at the Sixth Philippine Shrimp Congress, scheduled for Bacolod City on May 28–30, 2008.  About 700 delegates from the Philippines and abroad are expected to attend the congress, said Philip Cruz, convention chairman.

The Philippines currently produces about 24,000 metric tons of prawns and 30,000 tons of shrimp.  Its main markets are Japan and Korea.

Source: The Visayan Daily Star.  Shrimp industry hurting, needs boost from gov’t.  Carla Gomez.  May 17, 2008.

Singapore

Let’s Go Fishing for Freshwater Prawns

A blogger reports: Arriving at night, we drove half way across the country trying to find the prawn farm (Macrobrachium rosenbergii).  It’s nicely hidden with its entrance 80% in the dark, save for a small wooden sign that says “Fishing”.  The place is quite cool, with three major ponds, one for fishing, one for prawning and one for catch and release.  It’s relatively clean, the prices are very reasonable, and the beer is cheap ($3.00 a can).  It’s opened 24 hours a day and gets more crowded at night.  What’s the hardest part in prawning?  The emotional obstacle you have to overcome when cooking your live catch.  Skewering the prawns and placing them on top of the fire while their legs are still kicking can be an unpleasant experience.

Source: AroFarMeR (a blog).  A Prawning Bday Celebration for Marcus & Joe.  Norman Tsai.  May 19, 2008.

Thailand/Bangladesh

The True Cost of Shrimp

On April 23, 2008, the Solidarity Center (“American Center For International Labor Solidarity,” affiliated with the AFL-CIO) released a 40-page report titled The True Cost of Shrimp.  A strong indictment of labor practices at shrimp processing plants in Bangladesh and Thailand, it also includes comments on the Global Aquaculture Alliance and the Aquaculture Certification Council.

The report received immediate attention in the media (CNN and Reuters News) and generated a broad range of responses from the seafood industry, including the following organizations and individuals:

• Jim Heerin, President of the Aquaculture Certification Council

• Wally Stevens, Executive Director of the Global Aquaculture Alliance

• Reuters News

• John Connelly, President of the National Fisheries Institute

• John Sackton, Editor of Seafood.com

• Seafood Source.com

• Somsak Paneetatyasai, President of the Thai Frozen Foods Association

• CNN (the Cable News Network)

• Hossain Zillur Rahman, Commerce Advisor for the Government of Bangladesh

• Steven Hedlund, Associate Editor of Seafood Business magazine

• Mahmudul Karim, Executive Director of the Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation

• Charles Woodhouse, an attorney and shrimp farming columnist for Fish Farming International

You can check out their comments and download a copy of The True Cost of Shrimp at my Free Reports Page.

Source: Bob Rosenberry, Shrimp News International, May 30, 2008.

United States

Massachusetts—Aqua Bounty Technologies

Aqua Bounty Technologies, Inc.,  has announced that it intends to scale back marketing and registration efforts on its first generation shrimp feed additive, IMS.

Source: CNW Telbec.  SemBioSys provides update on shrimp feed additive, Immunosphere™.  May 16, 2008.

United States

New Jersey—Schering-Plough Animal Health Corporation

Schering-Plough Corporation, an international pharmaceutical company, had 50,000 employees and revenues of $12.5 billion in 2006.  It has an animal health subsidiary that markets two products for shrimp farmers: Vibromax™ and Ergosan™.  Here’s some information on those products from Schering-Plough Animal Health Corporation’s webpage.

“The use of...Vibromax is a proactive approach to disease control in shrimp.  ...Vibromax is a multivalent vaccine for shrimp that enhances resistance against a multiplicity of Vibrio species including luminescent Vibrio.  Exhaustive selection of pathogenic strains from several countries, allied with its novel formulation characteristics, ensures...Vibromax provides protection against a variety of pathogenic Vibrio species.  ...Vibromax is a safe, easy to use and effective emulsion type vaccine; it is delivered orally using Artemia nauplii as a delivery vehicle, a procedure that is commonly used in shrimp hatcheries worldwide.  ...Vibromax’s novel vaccine delivery system is the first commercially available vaccine of its kind in the world.  When used under an optimal nutrition program and good hygienic rearing conditions, cultured shrimp will achieve higher survival and growth rates and overall improved health.”

“Ergosan is an algine based immunomodulator extracted from marine algae.  The active ingredients, including algines and polysaccharides, are known to strengthen the full range of natural defense systems in fish.  It is a completely natural product and as such is an accepted feed ingredient.  Immunomodulators and immunostimulants can play a valuable role in aquaculture where their use includes improving the nonspecific immune response to a range of pathogens and enhancing the immune response in animals with a weak or developing immune system (for example, shrimp).  ...Vibromax and...Ergosan provide hatchery operators and farmers with proactive tools geared towards prevention of disease.”

For growout feeds: “The vaccine can be incorporated by ‘top-dressing’ at the feed mill or on the farm site.  This is the first effective oral delivery system for shrimp vaccines, eliminating traditional methods of vaccination.  This oral delivery system has proven to be effective for shrimp, and those operations implementing a full vaccination strategy have greatly reduced conventional treatments and losses associated with vibriosis outbreaks.”

Information in the USA: Schering-Plough Animal Health Corporation, Aquaculture Department, P.O. Box 3182, Union, New Jersey 07083 USA (phone 908-629-3344, fax 908-629-3365).

Information Elsewhere: Schering-Plough Aquaculture Centre, 24-26 Gold Street, Saffron Walden, Essex CB10 1EJ, United Kingdom (phone 44-1799-528167, fax 44-1799-525546, email spaquaculture@spcorp.com, webpage www.spaquaculture.com).

Source: Schering-Plough Animal Health Aquaculture Webpage.  On the page that appears, click on “Vibromax” under the words “Vaccination Guides” and a PDF will be downloaded to your computer that contains research results with shrimp.  Site visit on May 19, 2008.

United States

Texas—Something Fishy Happening at Granvil Treece’s Shrimp Farming Short Course

The 23rd Annual Texas Shrimp Farming Short Course and, for the first time, the Marine Finfish Culture Course will be conducted at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas on September 10-15, 2008.  The marine finfish culture curriculum was added to the course this year due to popular demand and will include three to four marine finfish instructors giving lectures and laboratory demonstrations.

Participants will have an opportunity to interact with approximately 14 different specialists in the field of shrimp and finfish mariculture through lectures, laboratory demonstrations and field trips to shrimp and finfish farms and research facilities.

The following instructors will be invited to participate again this year:

Dr. Joe Fox, an aquatic animal nutritionist with over 30 years experience in aquaculture systems, has served as technical director for two international companies that were involved in shrimp farming.  He has written several training manuals on shrimp farming and has conducted training sessions in several countries, including Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, the United States, Guatemala and Nicaragua.  He has constructed ten shrimp hatcheries around the world and authored more than 50 publications on shrimp farming.

Dr. Patricia Varner and/or Dr. Ken Hasson will be invited to cover shrimp and marine finfish diseases and possibly give a hands-on demonstration on sample preservation for disease testing.

Dr. Russ Miget will be invited to cover the processing and storage of fish and shrimp harvests.  Dr. Miget is a well-known expert in the field of seafood technology and safety and has over 30 years of experience with the marine seafood industry in Texas.

Dr. Tzachi Samocha will cover zero-exchange systems for shrimp and bait shrimp production.

Dr. G. Joan Holt, a world-renowned marine scientist and mariculture researcher, will address vital issues surrounding fish ecology and captive culture.

Jeff Kaiser will cover the acquisition, husbandry and spawning of various warm water marine fish species.  He will also discuss the design and maintenance of systems used to rear marine finfish.  His research interests and past experience include spawning of marine finfish in captivity, juvenile production for stocking efforts and offshore cage culture in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tours: Although final arrangements have not been made, participants will most likely visit a processing plant, shrimp farm and marine finfish farm.  Other field trips will be taken to the Texas AgriLife Research Station and shrimp mariculture facility in Corpus Christi, where the zero exchange and shrimp and bait shrimp research takes place, and to the Marine Development Center in Flour Bluff, where a variety of marine finfish are grown for stock enhancement purposes.

Course Fee: $250 before August 1, 2008, and $300 after August 1, 2008.  Course registration closes September 1, 2008.  The registration fee includes an opening hospitality hour, lectures, lab facilities, course materials and field trips.  Participants must pay for their accommodations, meals and furnish their own transportation to and from the course.

Registration: Send a cashier’s check or a USA bank money order in the amount of $250 before August 1, 2008, or $300 after August 1, 2008, made out to Texas A&M University.  Write what it is for on the check or on a letter accompanying the check.  Provide your name and full contact information (name, address, telephone number and email address).  To pay by credit card, fax the name on the card, the credit card type (American Express, MasterCard or Visa), the credit card number and the expiration date to Peggy Foster (fax 979-845-7525).  Add a note that the payment is for the 23rd Annual Texas Shrimp Farming Short Course and the Marine Finfish Culture Course.  Registration is refundable if you are not able to attend.

Mail your registration check to Peggy Foster, Assistant to the Director, Texas A&M University Sea Grant College Program, 2700 Earl Rudder Freeway South, Suite 1800, College Station, Texas 77845 USA; or call in or fax your credit card number to Peggy Foster (phone 979-845-1245, fax 979-845-7525, email pfoster@tamu.edu).

Information: Visit the Texas Sea Grant web site for more details and updates during the summer of 2008, or contact Granvil Treece, Aquaculture Specialist, Texas A&M University, Sea Grant College Program (phone 979-845-7527, email g-treece@tamu.edu).

Source: Email with attachment from Granvil Treece on May 23, 2008.

Vietnam

Poachers

Over the past several months, shrimp farms in Bac Lieu and Soc Trang provinces in the Mekong Delta have lost shrimp to poachers.  At the Vinh Trach Dong Commune in Bac Lieu Town, poachers hit the farm at night.  After cutting through the protective metal fencing, they scattered shrimp feed on the surface of the pond, harvested shrimp with cast nets and fled on motorbikes.  Major Truong Minh Khoi, the commune’s police chief, said that many farms within the commune have been hit in a similar manner.  “Obviously, the thieves have invested very carefully in collecting information before taking action,” Khoi said.

According to Lieutenant Nguyen Thanh Dung from Border Station 650 in Soc Trang Province, the robbers are very skilled and operate across many provinces.

Nguyen Tri Thuc, the managing director of Duyen Hai Aquiculture Company, which owns a farm with more than 500 hectares of ponds in Bac Lieu, said the company is a regular victim of poachers.  Thuc said the company’s security guards have encountered them several times and have even been attacked by them.  Some guards were locked in a house by the poachers, and once a guard was submerged in a shrimp pond until he nearly drowned.  Many farms have hired security guards and some use dogs to protect their ponds from poachers.

Source: ThanhnienNews.  Crustacean heists rampant in Delta provinces.  Tien Trinh.  May 15, 2008.

Vietnam

Mismanagement Plagues the Shrimp Farming Industry

In northern Vietnam, lack of funding and poor management are being blamed for the failure of shrimp farms in Hai Phong City and Thai Binh and Thanh Hoa provinces.  Four out of six aquaculture projects in Hai Phong City, occupying an area of 2,000 hectares and carrying an investment of $25 million, have either failed or are on the brink of closing.  A Hai Phong official said the projects were large employers and that their failure would be a major blow to the local economy.

An 80-hectare shrimp farm run by Hai Phong Seafood Export Company is desperately seeking funds after the city’s People’s Committee decided not to back the project, citing the firm’s inefficiency and poor management.  Total investment earmarked for the project was more than $2.8 million, but so far just $437,000 has been raised.  While the company looks for addition funds, it has suspended its shrimp farming operations, and switched to fish farming.

The failure of Viet My Technology Company’s project to build an aquaculture farm was also attributed to poor management.  Company director Dinh Van Hong said the $4.75-million project was meant to occupy an area of 988 hectares, but Viet My spent $6.2 million to build a farm that was just 330 hectares that included  100 hectares for shrimp and 200 hectares for fish.

In the northern province of Thai Binh, a $2-million processing plant, approved by the provincial People’s Committee in July 2001 has yet to be completed.  That project, financed by Thai Thuy District’s People Committee and Thai Binh Seafood Company, was scheduled to open in 2004.  So far, just the first phase of construction has been completed.  Thai Binh Seafood Company has refused to continue with the second phase, arguing that it would have to come up with an additional $1.25 million to buy high-tech processing equipment.  The project has since been sold to the Taiwanese firm Rich Beauty Viet Nam for $150,000.

Nguyen Chu Hoi, director of the Viet Nam Institute of Fisheries Economics and Planning, under the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development, blamed a lack of supervision for the failure of a number of seafood projects.  Hoi said the failure of the frozen seafood processing factory in Thai Binh was due to a lack of sufficient planning.

In the central province of Thanh Hoa, six shrimp farming projects worth $5.56 million and occupying 450 hectares that started in 2001 are on the brink of failing.  Dang Van Thong, deputy director of Thanh Hoa Province’s Fisheries Department, said aquaculture projects made good economic sense, but many had been implemented too hastily, without adequate planning.  He said there was no generally accepted blueprint for an aquaculture farm.  “We do not even know what the model should be,” said Thong.

Source: Vietnam News.  Shrimp farms suffer from poor plans.  May 16, 2008.

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