Taiwan News.com, 4 January 2010
Taiwan grouper farmers, if they survived Morakot Typhoon at all, have been struggling to keep their heads above water in their efforts to recover the lucrative market.
The culture of groupers, also known as rock fish, in seawater aquaculture ponds in the southernmost county of Pingtung, particularly in its Linbian and Jiadong townships, had been a leading cash cow in Taiwan's aquaculture industry, with exports topping US$40 million in 2008, a figure that has jumped 48-fold in the last three years.
The fishery, however, was nearly drowned by a mass inundation triggered by Typhoon Morakot, with 90 percent of the grouper farms washed away or choked by silt even if the fish themselves were not washed away.
"Only about 10 percent of the original grouper farms remain," said Chen Chung-min, chief secretary of the Linbian Farmers Association. It takes at least two years for fish farmers to have their aquaculture stocks replenished and export delivery resumed, Chen said. Besides the time factor, he went on, the fish farmers need to raise money to survive.
As grouper culture is a "high risk, high investment return" business, the farmers need to raise at least NT$15 million (US$454,545) to start a pond, he said. "Some farmers have lost over NT$50 million because of Typhoon Morakot," he noted.
In the wake of the typhoon, some managed to raise enough money to resume grouper culture, some shifted their operations to cheaper fish such as tilapia, and many were forced out of the market altogether after failing to secure loans from banks, according to Chen.
Source: Taiwan News.com
