Local production of live food for aquaculture to slash the import bill

Manufacturing and packaging plant in Hambantota

By Hiran H. Senewiratne

The local Artemia rearing industry is poised to replace the necessity of importing cysts thus helping to save the outflow of foreign exchange spent on aquaculture.

Artemia cysts are shrimp eggs with an excellent hatching rate and Artemia cysts nauplii are well-known as the ideal live food for ornamental fish and prawns in farms.

Nishantha Sandabarana, Chairman Lanka Salt Limited (LSL) in Hambatota told The Island Financial Review that the Company is now in the process of taking  steps to increase the production of Artemia. It is a microscopic invertebrate living being which inhabits in salterns, a source that provides high protein nutritional value for ornamental fish and prawns in farms.” he said.

“At present it is naturally germinating at the Palatupanna salterns close to Bundalama wildlife reserve and with that we are able to manufacture Artemia for local consumption to meet about 10 percent of the total local requirement. To increase this 50 acres have been allocated within the salterns to start producing them in a big way, ” Sandabarana said.

He said that Artemia Cysts nauplii are well-known as the ideal live food for ornamental fish and prawns and there is a huge local and international market for the product. Currently Sri Lanka imports 90 percent of the local requirement, and we are on track to boosting the local production of this feed important for aquatic animals. Encouragingly, the Artemia varieties that are found in local lagoons are unique with an excellent 80 percent hatching rate, he said.

Lanka Salt Limited (LSL) Chairman Nishantha Sandabarana shows a premium quality locally produced tin of dry Artemia cysts, a live feed used in aquaculture. A 150-gram tin costs Rs. 1,700 which he says is way cheaper than the imported stuff of similar quality.

He said that they have sent several officials to Vietnam to further train them on the techniques. “Once the initial phase is fully in progress we should be able to double the production. At present we are producing 1,500 tins of 150 grams for a year, he said.

” The nutritive value of the freshly hatched nauplii and the advantage of using the dry cysts as a source of live feed brine shrimp is highly important. Artemia cysts are used very extensively throughout the world in most of the hatcheries of both freshwater and marine fishes and crustaceans”, Sandabarana said.

LSL Assistant Production Manager Sachira Wickramaarchchi said that until recently the entire world demand of brine shrimp cysts was met by a few commercial companies from San Francisco, Utah and Canada.

“Because of the heavy demand, the price of Artemia cysts went up and it seems likely that the shortage of Artemia cysts might become a major constraint on the growth and development of aquaculture in future,” Wickramaarchchi said.

The National Aquatic Resources Agency (NARA) initiated a project on Artemia culture many years ago having realized the importance of Artemia as a live feed in aquaculture. An initial survey was conducted along the southern, western and northern coast of Sri Lanka as a precursor of the project.