16 JUNE 2015 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG Europe (Fig. 12). As such, farms were equipped with processing facilities to deliver frozen or value-added products (e.g., cooked, peeled and deveined, butterfly, breaded). These farms were built with several ponds numbered and sized to have daily harvests (Fig. 13). This was required to keep a continuous flow of shrimp to sustain a processing facility running at two or more shifts a day. However, in 2004, when antidumping tariffs were imposed against Brazilian shrimp by the US, many of these processing facilities became idle and farmers started to shift their attention to the domestic market. Today, the main destination for cultured marine shrimp is the domestic market. With increasing purchasing power and income, the Brazilian consumer, who has traditionally consumed fresh shrimp in restaurants, is now demanding frozen processed or value-added products in major retail chains (Fig. 14). This has prompted investments by major farms in state-of-the-art processing equipment and facilities (Fig. 15). However, depending on farm production scale, tilapia and shrimp can be marketed fresh. Small operations rely on fresh products sold at the farm gate to intermediaries or directly to consumers at local fish markets, stores or restaurants. Mediumscale farms usually rely on intermediaries or retailers but may also pay third parties to process their product or sell directly to processing plants owned by large-scale operations. When transported in loads of less than 10 t using insulated or refrigerated trucks, distances can exceed more than 2,000 km for shrimp, but are usually less than 1,000 km for fish. Freight is a major cost and only valued-added products are transported long distances in search of large buyers or markets. In amounts of 1 t or less, tilapia is traded locally, usually within distances of less than 300 km. A. B. FIGURE 11. On small- and medium-size cage tilapia farms, feed is often delivery manually from boats or walkways (A, B). Mechanical delivery is required in large operations (C). Photos: Alberto Nunes. C. ABOVE, FIGURE 12. Production and trade flow in an aquaculture operations in Brazil in relation to production scale. FIGURE 13. Most shrimp farms in northeast Brazil carry out mechanical harvesting to keep up with increasing market demand.
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