Sustainable prawn harvest in Costa Rica

In 2003 a project began in Costa Rica with four small fishing boats. In co-operation with the University in San José, in particular with a German marine Biologist living there, Dr. Ingo Wehrtmann, new shear boards were developed that are 30% smaller and lighter. This allowed the proportion of undesirable by-catch to be appreciably reduced. At the same time Dr. Wehrtmann researched when and at what depth the female prawns carry the most eggs in order to introduce a closed harvesting season based on hard data. The results of all these endeavours are harvests with a high proportion of the target species.

It is easily seen that the company has a holistic employment strategy as the co-workers receive not only a wage, but also enjoy social benefits (insurance cover for health and retirement, relaxation breaks during the work day etc.) which is not in any way usual in Costa Rica. The captains of the company owned fishing boats are given exact instructions on how to go about their work. Every catch has to be accounted exactly. This helps under pin further the scientific basis, which in turn leads to ever better catch results, also with respect to reducing undesirable by-catch, but above all to the maintenance of limited and valuable species.

Further processing (deshelling and freezing) occurs in a processing factory built to European criteria. The end results are very high quality prawns without additives (e.g. stabilisers) and consequently with the intensive prawn taste found only in the wild product.

The concept is convincing. Prawns growing in the wild are a better alternative to artificially feed, farmed prawns, kept in ponds. At our instigation, the harvested prawns are not treated with stabilisers such as phosphates, or other preservatives. That makes our prawns a pure, natural product.

With absolute conviction: organic – substainable – fair