According to the public relations of the Iranian Fisheries Science and Research Institute, Dr. Pourkazemi, the director of the institute, on the sidelines of the technological products meeting with the deputies of the Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization said: today, if the shrimp industry of Iran is able to produce about 30,000 tonnes, it owes to the production of technological products. This is especially important in the food sector. Referring to the fact that the selective breeding of warmwater fish, coldwater fish and shrimp are on the agenda of the institute and subsidiary research institutes, he added: at least 15 species of aquatic organisms which are produced in the aquaculture industry of the country are the result of an effort made by domestic researchers to produce technological products. In this regard, 40 products in the field of feed and processing are ready to be introduced to the market. He believes that the production of about one ton of probiotics has led to the production of this product for shrimp farmers at the moment, while the same probiotics for other parts of the livestock are mainly imported from abroad. Meanwhile, domestic consumers of probiotics in the aquaculture sector have acknowledged that the conversion rate of food and production has increased and diseases have significantly decreased. Also, in another part of his speech titled "Technological achievements of the Institute", he stated: the production plan of SPF shrimp (Specific Pathogen Free shrimps) is a great encouragement for the exploiters. For this purpose, hybrids were obtained and 3,000 male-female pairs of high-health shrimp were introduced to the market, last year. That means 10% of the total production needed by the country. Of course, this amount is expected to reach 4,000 pairs this year and if the facility is approved, this amount will be increased up to 50 percent of the shrimp broodstock requirements. He said that the production plan for SPF trout has been implemented and he added: at present, between 500 and 800 million eyed eggs of rainbow trout are imported into the country each year and the probability of a disease coming in with these imports will cause billion rials damage to the users. Preparation of the SPF trout scheme and fish identification card from genetic perspective not only does it prevent significant foreign exchange outflows from the country, but also minimize economic losses from the disease. Dr. Pourkazemi, referring to the importance of preserving aquatic reserves in the north and the south waters of Iran, emphasized: if these observations are not carried out by researchers, the reserves of some aquatic organisms will be decreased dramatically in one or two years and because of that, the economy of capture fisheries will collapse. At the end, he mentioned cage fish farming as one of the priorities of the Ministry of Agriculture- Jahad and he added: the location of the cages, healthy ecosystem, effective location and dozens of other issues are of the technological tasks that the Iranian Fisheries Science and Research Institute has been pursuing seriously in the field of cage fish farming.
