Artemia in Brazil: from harvesting to culturing
As a response to the
increasing use of Artemia in
aquaculture, this anostracan was inoculated by man in areas where it did not
exist previously. That was the case for the salinas in NE-Brazil that were
colonized from inoculations made in Macau (State of RN) in 1977, with Artemia
franciscana cysts (origin: San Francisco Bay, California, USA). Through
aquatic birds, men, and wind, this anostracan dispersed throughout all
salinas in the region. Thus, by the end of the '70s and beginning of the
'80s, two of the main salinas in the State of RN (CIRNE and Henrique Lage)
started collecting and processing Artemia
cysts and selling (US$ 30 to US$ 60 per kg) them to the USA and Japan.
During this period, the annual production of cysts ranged from 5 to 10 tons.
By the end of the '80s, with the gradual dispersion of the Artemia
populations, cysts started to be collected in several salinas in the
municipalities of Grossos and Areia Branca. Meanwhile, with the gradual
adaptation of the Artemia
populations to the environmental conditions found in the saltworks of the
State of RN, cyst yearly outputs stabilized around 2 tons.
Nowadays, harvesting of Artemia
cysts in Brazil is carried out more intensively by family operations (of low
financial investment and of rudimentary technology) located in the
municipality of Grossos (RN). This change has caused a substantial loss in
the quality (e.g. presentation, purity) of the cysts produced in that area.
Thus, in spite of maintaining an excellent nutritional profile, i.e. nauplii
of small size and of high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids of the n-3
(e.g. 20:5w3) and n-6 (e.g. 20:4w6) series, Artemia
cysts produced in RN are sold in the internal market for ca. R$ 100 per kg
(US$ 50), which represents around 50% of the price of imported cysts.
The consumption of Artemia
cysts in Brazil is centered almost in its totality (> 95%) in the marine
shrimp hatcheries. In 2000, Brazil produced 5 billion PLs of Litopenaeus
vannamei and 4 tons of Artemia
cysts were required for each 1 billion of PLs. For the coming years, with
the foreseen expansion of the area for shrimp farming in Brazil from the
current 9,000 ha to 12,000 ha (by the end of 2001), 21,000 ha (2002), and to
35,000 ha (by the end of 2003), the yearly output of Brazilian hatcheries
will grow from the current 5 billion to 20 billion PLs. Concomitantly, the
annual consumption of Artemia
cysts in the hatcheries will increase from 20 to 80 tons. By the end of the
decade, with the probable growth of the Brazilian shrimp farming area to
50,000 ha of ponds, 30 billions of L.
vannamei PLs will be required to stock shrimp ponds and as a
consequence, 120 tons of Artemia
cysts will be necessary to supply the Brazilian market.
The Brazilian market of Artemia
cysts, in the order of 20 tons per year, is basically supplied through
imports, as the 2 tons of cysts being produced in RN per year hardly
represent the average monthly consumption of Brazilian shrimp hatcheries.
Therefore, the unpredictability in the world supply of Artemia
cysts has echoed intensively in the Brazilian shrimp farming industry.
Taking into account that the
Brazilian production of Artemia
cysts does not show perspectives of growth in the medium term because it
relies solely on the natural productivity (harvesting) of its salinas; and
on the other hand, making good use of the natural capital, human resources
and technological assets available in RN, the Brazilian Shrimp Farmers
Association (ABCC), in partnership with Universidade Federal do Rio Grande
do Norte (UFRN), Brazilian Mariculture Linkage Program (BMLP), and
BioArtemia Ltd., is building Brazil's first Artemia
farm. The farm is being constructed in
Grossos (RN). The technology to be used in ABCC's experimental Artemia farm was developed by the Artemia Reference Center (University of Ghent, Belgium), and it has
been successfully used in the Mekong delta (Vinh Chau, Vietnam) in
partnership with the Institute of Marine Sciences (University of Can Tho,
Vietnam) since 1997. Adapted to the conditions found in the saltpond region
of RN, and under the technical responsibility of UFRN, ABCC's farm will use
s Artemia franciscana in culture
cycles of 4 to 5 weeks (10 annual cycles) in semi-intensive production ponds
of 0.5 ha. The expected average productivity is in the order of 100 kg of
cysts per hectare/year. The farm was designed to have a
fertilization/evaporation area of ca. 1.2 ha, 3 production ponds of 0.5 ha,
pumping station, inflow and outflow channels, laboratory, etc. The general
objective of ABCC's Artemia farm is to supply the economical, scientific and
technological subsidies to define the implementation of a regional Artemia
farming industry in the State of RN (NE-Brazil).
(English summary of article
in Portuguese by Prof. Dr. Marcos R. Camara, Universidade
Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN),
E-mail:
mrcamara@ufrnet.br, in Panormama da Aqüicultura, Vol. 10, No.
62, Nov/Dec 2000)