DAGUPAN City - Once illegally cultured in the country, the Peneaus vannamei or Pacific white shrimp is now the newfound star of the local fish farmers owing to its profitability over other species.

The culture of white shrimp underwent many challenges, including the destruction of $25,500 worth of breeders in 2005, before the govemment finally endorsed its cultivation. "The Philippines was a latecomer in vannamei farming," says Westly Rosario, BFAR center chief and interim executive director of the NFRDI. "Many countries already are way ahead in its culture because it was banned in the Philippines for many years," he says.

While other countries have made strides in growing this species, Philippine fishery officials hesitated in accepting vannamei as a legal species for culture, industry leaders say. Some farmers clandestinely farmed it, through, they say.

But because of the successful experimental breeding by the BFAR, the ban was lifted in 2007. The govemment also issued guidelines on the importation of broodstock (breeders) and culture of offspring.

The Pacific white shrimp's legal entry to the country started on August 28, 2004, when the DA and BFAR entered into a memorandum of agreement with the private group Agrifisheries World to undertake studies on the culture of disease- free strains.