In the ever-going battle of Man versus Machine, the latter seems to be the unlikely winner, at least for the shrimp industry. With the rise of advanced automation, almost in every sector, the Latin shrimpers, especially, seem to benefit heavily by growing their production volumes at the expense of farmers in Asia, according to experts. Gorjan Nikolik, chief seafood analyst at Rabobank agrees that a glaring example of this tectonic shift is Ecuador’s shrimp farming industry which witnessed a dramatic increase in its production by using automated feeding systems and other farm improvements. He also infers that automation could make the global shrimp processing industry boom and become feasible, but over time only.
Though new business models like e-fishery and others with interesting concepts could give the Asian shrimpers a temporary respite, if they fail to embrace the latest technology very soon, then it could threaten Asia’s market share considerably in the next 5- 10 years. For example, the smaller Asian operators currently do not have the capital to invest in automated systems, while Latin America is aggressively investing in larger players running highly efficient operations, as per Nikolik. He sees Ecuador potentially reaching 2.5 million metric tons of shrimp production, mostly at Asia’s expense.
Robins McIntosh, CEO of Homegrown Shrimp and vice president at Charoen Pokphand Foods, says that ten years back, shrimp processing was synonymous with labour-intensive industries, which required heavy manpower to peel, grade and pack, and this was easily available in Asian shrimp-producing countries at very low costs. Though it helped the Asian shrimpers trump their Latin American counterparts initially, automation in the shrimp industry could be a major game changer.
For example, Mcintosh highlights the importance of laser-based grading systems that can grade shrimp down to a tenth of a gram in precision. He also hinted at machines underway that could automate peeling and de-heading shrimp effortlessly.
Previously, Ecuador relied heavily on Asia for the value-added processing of its raw head-on shrimp. Now with Ecuador ploughing enough money into automation to build its processing capacity, very soon it will cost-effectively perform processing domestically despite higher labor costs than Asia, according to McIntosh.
Cost reduction seems to be the key factor for the emergence of sophisticated technologies. It is critical to note that as shrimp processing becomes more refined with time, there will be less and less need for manpower, thereby keeping costs at a minimum, even with a possibility for “almost no people” thanks to automation, said Mcintosh.
Though preventive and control measures like new vaccines and disease control methods could give Asia a boost temporarily, the region’s fragmented shrimp farming industry, high mortality rates and disease make it vulnerable to being overtaken by industrialized operations in America as observed by Nikolik.
As the shrimp industry is highly dynamic and ever-evolving, if the Asian shrimpers do not act fast to join the bandwagon of adopting cutting-edge automation, then no sooner would their Ecuadorian counterparts give a run for their money!
