Freshwater prawn culture in China: an overview

Abstract

Freshwater prawns are one of the most recently introduced animals in freshwater Chinese aquaculture production despite the traditional preference of the people to the product in many areas of the country. Real commercial culture of freshwater prawns did not commence until the 1990s although its experimental culture was reported as early as the late 1970s. Freshwater prawn culture has grown very rapidly. This can be attributed to several factors including the traditional preference of Chinese to shrimp and prawn, the decline in the production of marine shrimp culture in the early 1990s caused by disease problems and an increasing demand for high quality products as the living standards of the Chinese people have improved through economic development. The rapid increase in production of cultured freshwater prawn is the result of growth in the area under culture, improved culture techniques and diversification in species. There is no national data available on the total culture area of freshwater prawn at the moment. However, freshwater prawn culture has expanded very quickly across the country. For example, Macrobrachium rosenbergii was cultured only in 12 provinces in 1993 and there was just one province with production of more than 1000 tons. By 2000, culture of M. rosenbergii has expanded to 24 provinces and autonomous regions in China and 7 provinces had production exceeding 1000 tons each. Overall, cultured M. rosenbergii accounted for only 0.06% of the total freshwater aquaculture production in China in 1993. By 2000, this had increased to 0.64%, nearly 10 times higher. In some areas, freshwater prawn culture has become a locally important component of freshwater aquaculture. Production of another cultured freshwater prawn species, M. nipponesis was estimated to be around 100,000 tons in China in 2000, close to the total capture production of the species. In 2000, the total production of cultured freshwater prawn was estimated to be over 200,000 metric tons in China1. Freshwater prawn culture in China: an overview