Shrimp farmers in Andhra Pradesh mull crop holiday as prices fall

Shrimps farmers say that they will go for a crop holiday if the exporters fail to lift their produce in the next 15 days at the prices agreed upon by them before the Empowered Committee constituted by the State government.
| Photo Credit: Kommuri Srinivas

Shrimp farmers in Prakasam and Nellore districts at a meeting on November 25 (Friday) decided to go for a crop holiday if the exporters fail to lift their produce in the next 15 days at the prices agreed upon by them before the Empowered Committee constituted by the Andhra Pradesh government.

The farmers complained that falling price of shrimp had taken a toll on their business.

“I raised shrimp with a hope for the price for a count of 100 above ₹300 per kg. But the price has fallen below ₹200 per kg mark. I have decided not to raise fresh crop in coming February,” said K. Venkateswara Rao says, a farmer from the coastal Tangutur mandal, on the sidelines of the meeting that was organised to take stock of the situation arising out of crash in shrimp prices.

‘’Though the farmers will not be able to achieve the break-even if the price rules below ₹270 per kg, we accepted during the review of the prices by the Committee earlier this month to avoid uncertainty. But the agreement is hardly followed,” said Shrimp Farmers’ Association Prakasam district unit convener Duggineni Gopinath.

Exporters are adopting a ‘go slow’ approach, leaving the shrimp farmers in the lurch. With no holding capacity, many farmers are forced to sell their produce to middlemen at a price less than ₹20 per kg for various counts, they lamented.

Association All-India president I.V.R. Mohan Raju lamented that the exporters were driving down the prices of Litopenaeus vannamei shrimp on the pretext of excess production in Equador, even as their counterparts in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam got a price between ₹290 and ₹310 for 100 counts of white leg shrimp.

Andhra Pradesh State Aquaculture Development Authority (APSADA) Vice-Chairman V.Raghuram said he would draw the attention of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to their woes and the government could be expected to announce subsidised power for shrimp farmers in non-aqua zones.

Power subsidy

The shrimp farmers also complained that they would be forced to incur losses with electricity costing ₹3.85 per unit. Many units fell outside the aqua zones.

YSRCP MP Beeda Mastan Rao, a leading player in aqua sector, promised to coordinate with the exporters and ensure lifting of 30 tonnes to 40 tonnes of shrimp each day from the region.