Shrimp Industry Now Worth Twenty-Five Million Dollars

Belize’s shrimp industry is clawing its way back after a disease outbreak nearly crippled production more than a decade ago. Since 2020, production has tripled, and the industry is now worth almost twenty-five million dollars. On Monday, Agriculture Minister Rodwell Ferguson toured Aqua Vista Shrimp Hatchery and Aqua Mar Belize, where new genetics, investment, and technology are helping fuel that recovery. One major change is the use of drones to feed shrimp across large ponds, cutting down both time and labor. Ferguson says that kind of innovation could make shrimp farming more efficient and help bring more farmers back into the industry.

 

On the Phone: Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Agriculture

“By going to the shrimp farm was a quite an experience. And when we got there at the farm at Aquamara, what he did, he said, “Let me show you how I feed my shrimp now.” He said, “In the past, it used to take a gentleman one hour and a half to feed one pond. Now you have a, now you have a drone. So it take him three and a half minutes to feed a pond of 20 feet – a pond of 20 acres. In the past, it would take him an hour and a half.” So technology is now coming into the shrimp industry to mitigate some of the labor force. And I believe that if this works for him, then other farmers are also reconsidering to go back into shrimps, once we can control the mortality of the shrimps. So that is the direction we are going with shrimp, with the shrimp industry.”

 

The Belize Marketing and Development Corporation also recently introduced the use of drone technology to support rice farmers in the Toledo and Stann Creek Districts.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

Watch the full newscast here: