A Myanmar-Japanese joint venture aims at increasing farmed eels exports to the Japanese market, the world’s biggest consumer of the species. The companies involved, Anawa Devi Fishing & General Trading Co-op Ltd and Japan-based Daiichi Koutsu Sangyo Co, will farm level-finned eels, which are consumed domestically but have not been cultured commercially yet. Under the agreement, Daiichi plans to invest USD1 million in the project while Anawa Devi will provide land, research and other basic infrastructure. At the beginning, the project will cover 1 hectare of land at Yangon Pauk Village in Dala Township, a southern part of Myanmar’s business hub Yangon. Toe Nandar Tin, chair of the Myanmar Eel Entrepreneurs Association, said the new business is also an attempt to establish eel cultivation in Myanmar. At present, this country depends mainly on catch fisheries for its eel exports. “We have lack of technology on eel farming,” she said. “The drop in eel exports indicates that there are lesser fish stocks in nature as well and we need to cultivate eel for export rather than depending on capture fisheries,” the executive explained. Myanmar mainly exports mud eels, which are particularly popular in China, destination to which the country used to export 12,000 tonnes in the past. However, in 2016, exports to China only reached 7,000 tonnes, and export target figure is the same for this year, due to due to the decline of natural populations, Bangkok Post informed. A research carried out on Myanmar’s inland fish farms in 2015, shows that the fish farming industry grew rapidly over the past 10 years, posting an estimated 250 per cent increase in fish farm output from the Delta region, which accounts for 90 per cent of farmed fish in Myanmar.
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