A South Korean aquafarm is about to give fresh or live Asian tiger shrimps, which are considered very popular and necessary ingredients for various grilled shrimp dishes. This items are imported in frozen state from Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Thailand. With this production, it is recorded as the first commercial farming of black tiger shrimps in South Korea.
A farm in Dangjin, a port city about 80 kilometers (49.7 miles) southwest of Seoul, brought in around 150K Black Tiger shrimp fries from Thailand in May 2022. Then they cultivated them at high density with an eco-friendly bio-floc method. It is expected that this first South Korean Black tiger shrimps would be released in November 2022.
The Dangjin city officials said that the success of black tiger shrimp aquaculture is expected to give a new boost to the domestic shrimp farming industry, which has been dominated by white-leg shrimps, also known as Vannamei or Pacific white shrimps, which are native to the eastern Pacific Ocean.
“We will try hard for fishermen to gain stable income through the innovation of the aquaculture industry,” an unnamed Dangjin official said in a statement on October 17. Traditionally, Chinese white shrimps, or fleshy prawns, have been favored in South Korea, but aquaculture production was devastated by a series of epidemics in the 1990s and early 2000s.
An eco-friendly indoor farm has already been created in Dangjin that can produce white-leg shrimps using a bio-floc system, which was developed in 2016 to reuse water in indoor aquaculture tanks. Bio-floc technology was upgraded and applied to shrimp and fishing farming. Since viruses and diseases can be blocked by thorough quarantine, an optimal aquaculture environment can be created without being affected by climate.
Original story by:
Kim Joo-heon
