EMS-ravaged shrimp sector bounces back in Belize

The shrimp industry in Belize is on the mend after years of contending with diseases such as early mortality syndrome (EMS), according to a recent report from The Guardian. 

Back in 2014, shrimp aquaculture was shaping up to be one of Belize’s best earning sectors: exports were garnering the country BZD 90 million (USD 45 million, EUR 42 million) in foreign exchange (14. 8 percent of Belize’s total export earnings), and production was ramping up. However, EMS originating from a bacterial strain of vibrio parahaemolyticus soon gripped the industry, and many farms began to feel the disease’s full effects by March 2015. 

“Three months into the disease, most farms had been affected, plummeting production to less than half of what it was in 2014,” The Guardian reported.

Last year, Belize’s earnings for shrimp exports reached just BZD 10 million (USD 5 million, EUR 4.7 million). Due in part to “an aggressive campaign” put into place to “stop and reverse the effects” of EMS, the Statistical Institute of Belize’s report for shrimp exports for January and February 2017 anticipates an almost BZD 2 million (USD 1 million, EUR 944,367) increase over 2016. Exports amounted to BZD 6.8 million (USD 3.4 million, EUR 3.2 million) for the first two months of 2016, and this year, exports have been recorded at BZD 8.4 million (USD 4.2 million, EUR 3.9 million) for the same timeframe. Furthermore, overall marine product exports have already risen from BZD 4.3 million (USD 2.1 million, EUR 2.03 million), recorded in 2016 for the month of February, to BZD 4.7 million (USD 2.3 million, EUR 2.2 million) in February 2017. 

Current projections have shrimp production bringing Belize BZD 40 million (USD 20 million, EUR 18.8 million) in export earnings for 2017. More than 1,400 people are employed by the shrimp farming sector in Belize, a workforce consisting mostly of women in rural areas. Collectively, the shrimp farming labor pool for the country earns BZD 7 million (USD 3.5 million, EUR 3.3 million) in income, according to The Guardian.