Abstract:

South East Asia is the center of farmed shrimp, and China tops the shrimp production. Cultured shrimp species has changed gradually in South East Asia, and white shrimp becomes the most important farmed shrimp species in the world. Production of white shrimp reached 76% of the total farmed production in 2006, while it was only 62% in 2004. However, production of black tiger shrimp has increased in India, Indonesia and Bangladesh, for their bigger size harvested in extensive culture system. In the USA and Japan, the supply of shrimp surpassed the demand, resulting in gradually decreased market price. There is no way to stabilize the price unless bigger size shrimp produced at right seasons is encouraged as in Vietnam. In super intensive white shrimp culture system, production of over 40t•hm?2 per crop can be achieved. White shrimp can tolerate very low salinity water, and many freshwater areas have been converted into shrimp ponds. Finally, some suggestions for shrimp culture development are put forward in this paper.

Key words: South East Asia, shrimp, culture