Guyana harvests 495kg of prawns at Onverwagt production facility

The first batch of inland prawns at Onverwagt Shrimp and Prawns production facility along the West Coast of Berbice (WCB) was harvested on Monday.
The project has the potential of bringing in over US$2 million annually. According to information received, some 495 kilograms of prawns which is about 70 per cent of the 89,000 being reared were harvested from one pond.
The remaining 30 per cent will be harvested within a month.
Project Engineer of the Agriculture Ministry’s Onverwagt Prawns Project, Raymond Latchman explained that Monday’s harvest was just a trial, and production is expected to increase for the next harvest.
“In our second pond, we have increased the stocking number to 380,000. So, that will see a larger harvest in about two months. We are a month into production for that. The first harvest will be three months and the final harvest will be four months. It takes about three to four months to grow because some grow faster than others,” he explained.

In addition, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha stated that the price on the world market is US$15,000 per ton which will give an estimated US$750,000 for one crop of prawns. Currently, they are catering to the international market.
The farm has ten production ponds, three water storage ponds, and four nursery ponds and is expected to produce approximately 360 tons of shrimp annually at full capacity.
Latchman says they are pleased with the outcome of the trial run. “We are satisfied with the size. It took us a bit longer because this first batch is an experimental activity for us. Now we understand the constraints we are working with and so on. In terms of size and production, we are satisfied with the production.”
The harvest was sold to an exporter and sent to a processing facility where it would be prepared for the export market. Latchman revealed that five pounds have already been lined with two of them already put into production.
“We are fixing the third one now. That will be stocked within two weeks and we are also preparing the others. We have nine ponds currently constructed. The tenth one is currently being constructed. We also have three water storage ponds which entail the storage of seawater and the treatment of return water because we don’t want to be dumping the wastewater directly into the sea so we recirculate that water and reuse it.”
By the end of the year, Latchnam stated, most of the ponds will be in production.
Meanwhile, Mustapha while expressing satisfaction says the project will be replicated in other regions.
“This will be a tremendous boost for us as a country. In Latin and Central America countries like Ecuador and Peru, they are having large revenue coming out of the aquaculture sector. That is why we talk about agriculture we don’t only mean rice and sugar, we want to be a leader in all of the areas,” Mustapha said while noting that his Ministry is also working with Barbados to start a similar prawn project. (G-4)