Rajamahendravaram: Direct buying helps East Godavari shrimp farmers

Rajamahendravaram: In the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, the State government has decided to help the aqua farmers by fixing a profitable price for aqua products. As part of this, the government instructed the district collectors to ask all aqua processing units to purchase the aqua yield directly from aqua growers and avoid middlemen.

Accordingly, the East Godavari district administration has directed all aqua processing units in the district to purchase the aqua yield as per the prices fixed by the government. As per the directions, 11 aqua processing units in the district have purchased as many as 400 on Thursday as against 350 metric tonnes on Wednesday.

According to fisheries department joint director Jayaraj, the vannamei variety shrimp is aimed for export purpose and the processing units clean, pack and export the product. At present, the product is being exported to China through ships from Kakinada, Mumbai and Chennai.

The cost of vannamei variety is based on its count; the aqua product between 30 and 120 is export quality and the count between 120 and 150 is for domestic use.

The price of 100 count aqua is Rs 180, 80 count is Rs 200, 60 count is Rs 240, 50 is Rs 260 and 30 count is Rs 350.

Aqua crop is under cultivation in 12,000 hectare in the district out of which a total 7,000 hectare is in Konaseema area, Jayaraj said. Some employees of the department were posted at all aqua processing units in the district to monitor the purchases of aqua product by processing units.