Andhra Pradesh shrimp farmers in choppy waters over costs and competition

Amalapuram: As one moves into the interiors of East and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh, the landscape is punctuated by one particular sight: shrimp tank.

For thousands of acres, there is nothing else but a procession of shrimp tanks with aerators that provide sufficient oxygen to the seed. These are the tanks that feed the appetites of customers in Europe, the US and Japan, where fresh shrimp is a prized delicacy.

Aquaculture changed the fortunes of many in the region when the going was good.  Introduced in Andhra Pradesh in the mid-1990s, shrimp culture transformed the local economy in the coastal districts of east and west Godavari, parts of Krishna and Nellore, offering farmers an alternative to traditional paddy and other products.

Many farmers, especially in Godavari and Krishna districts, converted their agriculture lands into shrimp tanks.

These days, an uneasy calm hangs over the placid green waters as rising costs and stiff competition from other countries have brought aqua farmers to their knees.

“I have never witnessed  such a crisis in our lives that we have been witnessing in the last three years," a despondent Sadanala Sattibabu of Tadikona village told DH.

Sattibabu along with his brother Nagababu has been in the shrimp farming business for the last 20 years. They do farming of shrimp in around 20 acres.

"We are not getting even the minimum price. We have been continuing even after bearing losses. Sometimes, we feel we are trapped and unable to come out of it.”

Farmers lament that while the overall average expenditure per acre had gone up by more than 300 times in the last few years, the selling price had not improved.

“Feed bag, which used to cost Rs 800 10 years ago, is now around Rs 2,700-Rs 2,800. Similarly costs of medicine, seed, man power, land lease and electricity charges have gone up manifold in the last 10 years. However, the price we are getting per 100 or 40 count remains the same. The last three years have been the worst," said Devarapalle Bala Venkata Subramanyam who did shrimp farming in 10 acres in Amalapuram and in another 10 acres in Machilipatnam.

Last year, Subramanyam upped and quit shrimp farming in three out of the total 20 acres. And he sold 3 more acres to cover up the losses. 

To bail out shrimp farmers, the Andhra Pradesh government fixed remunerative/minimum support  price (MSP) at which the exporters are supposed to buy the crop from the farmers.   

Shrimps are graded according to their count per weight; in this business, size is everything. Less count per a kilo means bigger size, which commands a higher price in the market. It is believed that bigger size shrimp tastes better than a smaller one.

“But who will listen to the government? The day after the government’s announcement, exporters actually reduced the price by Rs 10 to 20 per 100 count of the MSP,” Sirangi Satyanarayana, who does shrimp farming in around 190 acres, in Amalapuram told DH.

Unable to bear the losses, Satyanarayan stopped shrimp farming in 45 acres in Palakollu.

Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) national president Pawan Kumar Gunturu said the price they offer to farmers "depends upon the price they get in the international market".

And here lies another tale.  

“Ecuador is giving stiff competition to us," he says. "Shrimp from Ecuador, which costs less, is flooding the international market. Shrimp production, which was just four lakh tonnes five years ago in Ecuador, had gone up to 1.2 million tonnes recently." 

Pawan also said the government should intervene and see that trade barriers with other countries are sorted to improve shrimp exports from India.