Myanmar shrimp farmers are to start using an Israeli technique to increase production and boost the price of shrimp by changing their gender, an official from the Myanmar Fisheries Federation said last week.
We are arranging to farm freshwater male shrimp as it can earn a higher price. Males are bigger than females and have stronger demand, said U Han Tun, vice chairman of the Federation.
The technique involves altering the DNA of the shrimp to change the sex and differs from hormone-based treatments commonly used by other Southeast Asian countries.
They feed females a hormone medicine for five to 10 days and after that they breed them, he said.
U Win Kyaing, general secretary of Myanmar Fisheries Federation, said the current farming of fresh water shrimp faced many difficulties because of reoccurring weaknesses in the species.
The female shrimp stop growing when they are pregnant, unlike the males. And when the males shed their skin they are more vulnerable and females often kill and eat them. This is one reason why we have lower production in shrimp farming, he said.