15 MAY 1999
SHRIMP PRODUCTION IN PANAMA
The Panamanian shrimp farming industry has undergone substantial development, and the country currently has the fourth largest area under cultivation among Latin American countries after Ecuador, Mexico and Honduras.
All shrimp farms in Panama are located on the Pacific coast, and are mostly concentrated around the Bays of Parita (Cocle Province) and Chame (Panama Province). By 1997 the country's pond area had doubled to approximately 7,000 ha, and by the summer of 1998 the area will have grown to close to 9,000 ha of growout ponds, divided among 40 farms or so.
The production of farmed shrimp in 1997 was 15,716,000 lbs (heads on). Most farms work under semi-intensive conditions, with stocking densities around 15-17 PL/m^2, and standard pond preparation and management procedures (fertilization, water exchange, feeding with commercial diets, and routine monitoring of water quality and animal health). The rapid expansion of pond area in recent years has occurred together with an increase in stocking densities, which has led to higher production per area; average production in 1997 was about 2,300 lbs/ha.
For many years Panama has been considered an important center for the production of shrimp larvae. The country had access to the technology before other countries in the region, and it was relatively easy to collect both wild shrimp broodstock and marine polychaetes that are very important as broodstock maturation feed.
Panama's geographic location and commercial flights facilitate the rapid transport of larvae to most shrimp producing countries in the region. Larval shrimp production in Panama has also been increasing due to the growing demand for Panamanian larvae abroad. Panama currently has 11 shrimp larval facilities, five of which have both maturation and larviculture, while three do only maturation and three do only larviculture. In 1997 these 11 laboratories produced around 14.3 billion nauplii and 1.744 billion postlarvae. The main nauplii producer was Farallun Aquaculture, S.A. with 6 billion nauplii. Local postlarvae demand was 1.2 billion, and the remaining 544 million postlarvae were exported. More than 50% of the nauplii production was exported, making Panama the largest nauplii exporter in the Americas.
In 1998 nauplii and postlarvae production are growing by an estimated 20% compared to 1997, and there are other laboratories under construction which will increase production output by an additional 20 to 30% by the end of 1999. The results obtained with Panamanian seedstock in other countries, mostly Panama, Ecuador, Honduras and Nicaragua, are very superior to those obtained with wild postlarvae or seedstock of other origin. This has resulted in a high demand for Panamanian seedstock.
(excerpts from article by D.E. Jory in International Aqua Feed, issue 1, 1999, on the First Latin American Shrimp Culture Congress and Exhibition, 6-10 October 1998, Panama)