MARANG: The country’s shrimp supply remains sufficient despite a temporary ban on imports of five shrimp species from Thailand that took effect on June 1.
Fisheries Department director-general Datuk Adnan Hussain said shrimp associations and local farmers have drawn up plans to increase production to meet both domestic and export demand.
“Supply remains sufficient, and we have received feedback from farmers and associations that they support this temporary restriction and are planning to increase production capacity to meet domestic and export demand,” he said after reopening the training vessel KL Cermin at the Fisheries Academy Malaysia here.
Adnan said Malaysia imports about 11,000 metric tonnes of shrimp annually from Thailand and exports about 3,000 metric tonnes in return, Bernama reported.
He said the temporary import ban would help protect the domestic industry from an oversupply of imported products while strengthening biosecurity controls to ensure the fisheries sector remains free from diseases and prohibited chemicals.
On May 16, Malaysia tightened import controls on Thai fishery products by requiring a Certificate of Analysis for siakap (seabass) and imposing a temporary ban on five shrimp species – Penaeus esculentes (brown tiger prawn), Fenneropenaeus merguiensis (banana prawn), Penaeus vannamei (whiteleg shrimp), Penaeus monodon (giant tiger prawn) and Penaeus stylirostris (blue shrimp).
