Shrimps constitute a dominant key item in the export basket of India. About 70% of India's total seafood export revenue to the tune of $7.08 billion dollars was contributed by shrimps, in the year 2017-18. The major species that are being exported from the country is an indigenous shrimp, the Pacific White (Penaeus vannamei). India adopted commercial culture of P. vannamei in the year 2009 after the establishment and commissioning of a dedicated aquatic quarantine facility, called the AQF-Aquatic Quarantine Facility for L. vannamei. The facility was established and is being operated by the Marine Products Export Development Authority-Rajiv Gandhi Centre of Aquaculture (MPEDA-RGCA). Currently, AQF is the one and only centralised aquatic quarantine unit in India and one of its kind in Asia. The present paper details on the decade long operation of the facility and highlights on the importation of P. vannamei broodstock to India, from different regions across the globe.
Keywords: Penaeus vannamei; Specific Pathogen Free; Culture; Quarantine; Broodstock;