By Rafiq Vayani
DUBAI/KARACHI: A breakthrough in shrimp farming has been achieved with the installation and operation of first shrimp hatchery in Pakistan. This initiative will give boost to shrimp farming industry in Pakistan , many public and private sector were unsuccessful in past due to non availability of shrimp seeds and feed. For the first time shrimp hatching has been made possible in Karachi, Sindh fisheries with efforts of Rawa Farms Pvt. Ltd.
Two million successful shrimp eggs to post larva process was successfully achieved by using state of art technology in a short span of eight months. This is a very important milestone for shrimp farming industry. According to Mr. Hamaad Habeeb CEO Rawah Farms Pvt. Ltd, after achieving the first milestone a state of the art modern hatchery is being built on 100 acres land, the first phase will be operative from Feb 2024 where a massive production of 500 million seeds will be done and further increased to one billion seeds.
Apart from seeds, work on Hundred thousand tons of high quality shrimp feed production is also in progress. Hamaad Habeeb also highlighted that shrimp farming will highly benefit the export Industry by multiplying their margins.
The main reason is that imported larva costs Rupees 15-16 as locally produced larva will only cost Rupees 4. Beside that mortality rate of larva will go down from 50% to 2%. Free seeds are being distributed to Punjab Fisheries research department, Karachi university marine department and many local farmers to promote shrimp farming and make it successful in Pakistan.
