With the export of Sureerath Farm’s shrimp Thailand has step into the organic shrimp market, a fairly new product even for health-conscious European customers. It is informed that the shipment also marked a new beginning for Thailand’s shrimp industry, which has an environmentally dirty past. This organic shrimp farming is first of its kind in Thailand.
It is said that Sureerath Farm in Laem Sing district of Chanthaburi province, 220 kilometres east of Bangkok. It has received certification from Naturland, an association of organic farmers in Germany, for meeting standards for raising shrimp and ensuring product quality. The certification paved the way for Sureerath to secure orders this year from Switzerland’s Co-op retailer and Germany’s Deutsche See, an organic sea food distributor. Sureerath Farm president Prayoon Hongrat is one of Thailand’s pioneers of organic shrimp farming.
The company said that in organic farming of shrimps no chemicals are used and so the shrimp are healthier and their immune systems can fight diseases. Five years ago, Sureerath Farm went completely organic, refusing to use any chemical-based feed meal or medicine in its ponds, lowering the density of its shrimp stock and installing wastewater recycling that avoids environmental damage.
