BUSHEHR -- A group of shrimp breeders in Bushehr Province demanded the government's assistance to promote shrimp industry.

"The government should support U.S. in overseas marketing and export of our products," they said.

They added that given the remarkable investment made on shrimp breeding in Iran, specially in Bushehr Province and the high employment rate in the related industry, the current problem should be tackled by the government.

One of the breeders, Ali Baz-Hajeb said, "Last year we were inflicted with great damage due to drop in the price of shrimp on the global market, so that we had no alternative than selling each kilogram of the bred shrimp Rls.3,000 below its cost value to Iran's Commercial Fishery Company." He added that this is the case while 70 percent of the due amount has not yet been paid after six months.

He contributed it to the lack of a proper foreign marketing system and called upon the authorities in charge to take the required measures towards marketing policies abroad to save the shrimp industry from recession.

Managing Director of Bushehr Province Shrimp Breeding Association, Mandani Houshangi, said that some decisions have been taken by the provincial and national shrimp breeding authorities, which have not yet been implemented.

He said that the recent decision to compensate the damages include the amount of the damage, allocation of subsidized loans and diminishing the cost of shrimp breeding which was brought up in Majlis Agricultural Commission and was approved by the cabinet.

Deputy Director of Bushehr Province Fishery Aquatics Breeding and Multiplication Department, Abbas-Ali Zendeh-Boudi referred to last year's damage inflicted upon the province's shrimp breeders owing to the drop of its price on global market and said that such crises take place in every industry and that it should be tackled with patience and proper planning.

He added that several meetings were held in this respect to solve the problems confronting shrimp breeders and that some decisions were made, according to which shrimp breeders are provided with some facilities aimed at decreasing their breeding expenses and boosting their production rate.

He stressed, "Some 60,000 hectares of land appropriate for shrimp breeding has so far been identified in Bushehr Province, out of which 2,300 hectares were exploited last year, while another 3,000 hectares are to be exploited this year." Referring to the employment rate in shrimp breeding industry, he rated it at one person per 1.5 hectares of breeding farm and recalled that currently the grounds for employment of 9,000 individuals over 13,500 hectares have been prepared, IRNA reported.