Agência Brasil
Brasília – In the last five years, farm bread shrimp export has risen greatly in Brazil. It has risen from 37,800 tons, in 2002, to 62,000, in 2003. The Northeast is the largest producer of shrimp. The region concentrates 97% of domestic production.
Apart from the increase in export, production has generated 50,000 direct and indirect jobs in the region, especially on the shore. The activity has given jobs to unqualified and unemployed people who used to work in the fishing industry and on sugar plantations. Shrimp production is 95% in the hands of small and medium producers.
To the president of the Brazilian Association of Shrimp Farmers, Itamar Rocha, the country can become a world shrimp export leader. "This year the country was the sixth world producer," he said.
It is expected that the country should become the world leader in shrimp export up to 2010. "Of all the countries that produce shrimp, Brazil is the only one that can produce from January to December, with no difference, i.e., without production peaks, different from what happens in Asia, which has a long cycle, but which must then stop due to its climate," he added. "Brazil also does not suffer with the Shrimp White Spot Syndrome Virus, which has been attacking shrimp worldwide, plus it is of very good quality," he added.
The largest world exporter of shrimp is China, with 300,000 hectares of shrimp breeding grounds. Then comes Vietnam, with 500,000 hectares. Brazil, despite only having 14,000 hectares is a productivity leader. The country produces up to six times more than China and up to 25 times more than Vietnam.
