{"id":5254,"date":"2025-10-12T10:40:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T07:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/new\/wordpress\/the-future-of-ultra-dense-shrimp-farming\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T03:26:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T23:56:56","slug":"the-future-of-ultra-dense-shrimp-farming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/the-future-of-ultra-dense-shrimp-farming\/","title":{"rendered":"The future of ultra-dense shrimp farming"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The future of ultra-dense shrimp farming<\/h2>\n

Humberto Villarreal of the Northwest Biological Research Center and Lorenzo Juarez of the Marine Products Development Corporation published an article in the Journal of the International Aquaculture Society that analyzes the challenges facing ultra-dense shrimp farming.<\/p>\n

Global shrimp production<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the researchers, Asian countries (83.4%) and Latin American countries (16.3%) account for the majority of shrimp production. The main species are the white shrimp (Vanami) – with 83% of production – and the tiger shrimp (Monodon).<\/p>\n

India and Ecuador have significantly increased their production in a decade, with 100% growth, reaching more than 1 million tons in 2021 without increasing farm area.<\/p>\n

Semi-intensive production in Ecuador averages 1,250 kg\/ha per crop, but now shrimp farmers can produce three crops per year and are trying to implement best practices in the industry.<\/p>\n

Ultra-intensive systems<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe define ultra-intensive systems for Vannamei white shrimp as plastic-lined ponds, channels and tanks with a population density of more than 150 shrimp per m2 per season and a significant level of technology,\u201d the researchers say.<\/p>\n

Ultra-intensive systems are an efficient way to maximize energy efficiency without harming the environment, while also minimizing water consumption to less than 250 L\/kg of production, which is only possible without water changes and requires more than 1,200 kg of shrimp to be produced per kW of energy, the researchers note.<\/p>\n

Their report states: \u201cOpen ponds should produce 2-3 crops per year and more than 30 t\/ha (1.2 kg\/m3). While waterways produce at least 3 crops with a density of more than 2.5 kg\/m3. Covered ponds (greenhouses) also have more than 3 harvests per year and their production density reaches 4.5 kg\/m3.\u201d<\/p>\n

They point out that in order to consistently achieve these goals, it is necessary to understand the interaction between production system design, biosecurity strategies, nutrition, egg quality, the impact of technological development, climate change and social principles in intensive shrimp farming. Because in this system the fixed capital is 5-10 times higher than in semi-intensive systems.<\/p>\n

Biofloc for intensification of shrimp farming<\/strong><\/p>\n

The researchers reported that biofloc is the most widely used technology for intensive shrimp farming.<\/p>\n

They note that the scientific knowledge available on these systems is limited, especially in terms of understanding their dynamics and the interactions between the ecosystem and the cultured fish.<\/p>\n

Commercially intensive systems in Asia have shown good results, but the economic and commercial sustainability of ultra-intensive systems has yet to be proven, Villarreal and Juarez say. \u201cThe challenges are both technological and in the value chain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn intensive shrimp systems, the identified challenges for farmers in terms of organismal, environmental, social and welfare issues include disease, feed, energy consumption and genetic selection,\u201d Villarreal and Juarez report.<\/p>\n

Nutrition in ultra-intensive systems<\/strong><\/p>\n

More information is still needed in ultra-intensive systems for new SPF lines and genetic selection to be successful in these systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn particular, in relation to nutritional requirements, a better understanding of protein and amino acid intake, the impact of alternative protein and lipid sources, and the interaction between bacteria and biofloc-based systems is needed. Although the feed industry has made significant progress in providing quality products to farms, these diets are still based on ingredients such as fishmeal, soybeans, wheat, fish oil and vegetable oils supplemented with a combination of vitamins and minerals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The challenge, the researchers say, is to develop alternative protein sources in a volume and at a cost that is feasible. \u201cCurrent alternatives are still limited resources with a high carbon footprint, while new alternatives are expensive and not available in sufficient volumes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Argument<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that the replication of current models for semi-intensive shrimp production will be limited,\u201d the researchers argue. “We certainly shouldn’t expect countries like Ecuador and China to double their production volumes with the same farming systems.”<\/p>\n

They also confirmed that in shrimp intensive farming, the aquacultured fish must be of sufficient physiological, metabolic, genetic, and health status to thrive in these environments.<\/p>\n

“From an environmental sustainability perspective, current ultra-dense systems use less water per kilogram of shrimp produced, recycle water, have lower feed conversion ratios, and optimize the use of ponds and water resources.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The future of ultra-dense shrimp farming Humberto Villarreal of the Northwest Biological Research Center and Lorenzo Juarez of the Marine … <\/i>Read more<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5255,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[352,351,350,354,358],"tags":[359,355],"class_list":["post-5254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquatic-economy","category-articles","category-news-and-articles","category-professional-breeder","category-shrimp","tag-359","tag-355"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5254"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5258,"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5254\/revisions\/5258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}