Current Trends in the Philippines' Shrimp Aquaculture lndustry:A Booming Blue Economy in the Pacific

Abstract

Shrimp aquaculture industry is an important source of income in the inter-tropical countries of Southeast Asia and other inter-tropical developing countries. The shrimp industry has grown rapidly and generates billions of dollars every year in trade and employs millions of people globally. World production of shrimp both captured and farmed is around 7 million metric tons. Shrimp is one of the most important internationally traded fishery commodities in terms of value. Annual reports show that exports of shrimp are currently worth more than 10 billion US dollars or 16% of all fishery exports. Currently, about 40% of the world catch of shrimp is from farming. However, the proportion of farmed shrimp in international trade appears to be much higher. The industry boomed rapidly in the Pacific particularly in the Southeast Asian region specifically in countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and Myanmar among others. The Philippines currently ranks 11th in world aquaculture production of fish, crustaceans, molluscs, etc. by principal producers in the latest report released by FAO in 2013 having 0.815 million metric tons of total aquaculture production and a 1.16% share to the global production of 70.2 million metric tons. The country’s total aquaculture production has amounted to over 1.98 billion US dollars. This study presents the current situation of the Philippines’ Shrimp Aquaculture Industry. This study is the first to correlate Shrimp Aquaculture Industry and the Blue Economy in the Philippines. Moreover, it presents the issues and challenges of the industry and hopes that all of the stakeholders will work hand in hand to achieve a more progressive Aquaculture Industry.