Shrimp symposium set for Nov.

The shrimp industry is one of the most lucrative export earners for Belize, with over one hundred million dollars in income last year. In an effort to keep the marine delicacy in healthy production, the Belize Shrimp Growers Association in collaboration with other agencies will be hosting an international shrimp culture symposium in Belize next month. Local organizer Osmond Martinez says while the country’s shrimp farms are currently free of diseases, now is the time to take the steps necessary to keep them that way.

Osmond Martinez, Local Symposium Organizer

?The main reason why we have it in Belize is because last year Belize was the highest producer of shrimp in Central America, one. Two, Belize is the only country in Central America which is free of white spot. We never know if we one day will have white spots here or not. You know, bringing this symposium to Belize, we have people who already have worked with white spot. Whereby Belizeans can get more familiar to what is all this white spot and what they have done now so that they can produce with this white spot and plus it?s not just a symposium but it?s an intensive international symposium which is the first one in Latin America.?

The international shrimp symposium is set for November third to the fifth in Belize City. Speakers will include top researches in shrimp diseases from the United States, Italy, and the Dominican Republic. The three-day forum has the support of the Belize Chamber of Commerce, BELTRAIDE and the Ministry of National Development. For more information on the symposium, you can visit the event?s website at:

www.gfce.org/camaron2004 .