A multi-million peso research on Vannamei, a foreign white shrimp, has been discontinued by the government-owned National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center (NIFTDC) in view of the controversy surrounding the specie. Westly Rosario, NIFTDC chief, said the center destroyed in public some 1,100 Vannamei breeders the country had imported from Hawaii, costing US$50,000 equivalent to some P2.7 million. Rosario said the research soon after the Vannamei breeders were brought by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) to the center on December 24, 2004. The research was undertaken for Agro-Fisheries World, a multi-million peso private company in the Philippines.

Gov't multi-million white shrimp research. (2005, April 14). Panay News, p .6.