Page 23 - World Aquaculture Magazine - March 2011

World Aquaculture 21
Aquaculture in Rio Grande do Norte,
NE-Brazil: Past, present and future
Alexandre Alter Wainberg1,2, Felipe de Azevedo S ilva Ribeiro ,1,3 Karina Ribeiro 1,4
and Marcos Rogerio Camara1,5
The state of Rio Grande do Norte (RN) is the largest pro-
ducer of farmed shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) in Brazil.
For 2010, the expected output is 30,000 t of farmed shrimp,
which represents 40 percent of all Brazilian production. The
output is expected to reach 75,000 t by the end of the year.
However, an extensive coastline that stretches over 400
km, a gigantic array of freshwater reservoirs built for hy-
droelectric power and drought control, and a warm climate
throughout the year provide a remarkable potential for
growth of a diversified aquaculture industry in RN, includ-
ing freshwater shrimp, molluskc, seaweeds, and freshwater
and marine fish species.
Shrimp
The state of Rio Grande do Norte (RN) has, for many
years, been linked to shrimp. Natives of RN are called “Po-
tiguares,”the name for members of the great Tupi nation who
first inhabited the coastal region of the Brazilian northeast-
ern states of Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba, and which
literally means “shrimp-eating people.”Not surprisingly, the
technical foundations for the Brazilian shrimp farming in-
dustry were set in RN, when successful experimental results,
first with an indigenous species (Farfantepenaeus brasilien-
sis) and later with the exotic Marsupenaeus japonicus, were
achieved at the Agriculture and Livestock Research Center
(EMPARN) in Natal (5º47’S; 35º12’W), the state Capital,
in the 1970s. In the following decade, the first commercial
shrimp farms were built in and around Macau (5º06’S;
36º38’W), where several hundred hectares of salt pans were
converted to shrimp growout ponds to cultivate Marsupe-
naeus japonicus under extensive conditions (1-3 shrimp/m2;
no supplemental feed) and produced average yields of less
than 500 kg/ha/year (Camara 1990).
The list of species that were tentatively used in experi-
mental and commercial crops in RN since 1973 is long and
includes indigenous (Farfantepenaeus brasiliensis, Farfante-
penaeus subtilis and Litopenaeus schmitti) and non-native
(Marsupenaeus japonicus, Penaeus monodon, Farfantepe-
naeus penicillatus, Litopenaeus stylirostris and Litopenaeus
vannamei) shrimp.
The switch to the exotic white shrimp Litopenaeus van-
namei – the leading species in the shrimp-producing countries
of the western hemisphere – was basically a consequence of
the disappointing results obtained with previously cultured
Litopenaeus vannamei , the leading species in RN. (Photo by
Karina Ribeiro)
species. By 1993, most shrimp farms in RN had turned to
L. vannamei. This change was helped by an increasingly
consistent supply of both L. vannamei postlarvae (PL), the
production of which increased from 1 billion in 1997 to over
16 billion in 2003, and from the availability of shrimp feeds
for the Brazilian aquaculture industry (Wainberg and Ca-
mara 1998). Technological developments in L. vannamei re-
production and feeding management, a favorable exchange
rate to exportation and declining production in Ecuador due
to disease (white spot) outbreaks contributed to substantial
increases in Brazilian shrimp production outputs in that pe-
riod. Accordingly, 90,190 t of shrimp were harvested in an
estimated area of 14,824 ha in Brazil in 2003 (Rocha 2007).
However, two years later, Brazilian production decreased
to 63,134 t of in an estimated area of 15,000 ha. This new
scenario resulted from a combination of falling shrimp pric-
es abroad (a consequence of the recovery of the production
in Ecuador and the successful introduction of L. vannamei
in Asia), shrimp disease outbreaks in Brazil, suspension of
licensing of new farms in Brazil because of increasing claims
of NGOs over the environmental impact of shrimp farm-
ing, unfavorable exchange rates and antidumping measures
implemented by U.S. authorities.
Currently, RN is the largest producer of farmed shrimp
in Brazil. For 2010, the expected output was 30,000 t, which