1. Title: Tiran Group from Israel is promoting All-Male Fresh Water Prawn culture
throughout the world based on Ben-Gurion University Technology.
While running the business of shipping and logistics for many years, Tiran Group
diversified its activities through investing in profitable aquaculture products and
technologies from Israel. This move started with the promotion of the highly
demanded Israeli Red Tilapia which is well appreciated for its high quality and unlike
other Red Tilapia is exhibiting a typical red color. At the end of 2007, Tiran group made
an agreement with Kibbutz Nir David aquaculture (which developed advanced tilapia
lines for more than thirty years, and serves as source of Israeli red tilapia) to promote
red tilapia in Asia.
In 2010 Tiran Group contacted Ben-Gurion University and made an agreement for an
exclusive license on a patent that included a newly discovered gene and its use for all-
male fresh water prawn production. Since then, Tiran has been investing in R&D and
collaborating with the research group of Professor Amir Sagi at the Department of Life
Sciences and the National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev. Based on this
agreement Tiran started to commercialize this Patent globally. In 2012 the first
commercial production of All-Male progeny was actively pursued by the company in
Vietnam. Towards the end of 2013 the all-male freshwater technology was brought to
China. In addition, commercial relationships were established with prawn growers in
Malaysia and Tiran is promoting its relationships with customers in the region
including Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh and more.
The technology
Commercial production of freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii has been the
subject of research and commercial enterprise for several decades. This species is
native to the tropical Indo-Pacific region of the World and is an economically important
crop in China, India, Vietnam, and many other Asian countries. It has high demand as
a food item and as an export product. The reduction of wild stocks has resulted in a
gradual increase in volume of traditional prawn culture. However a decrease in culture
during recent years called for the introduction of advanced technologies to increase
yields.
This is where the technology of producing all-male prawns developed by Professor
Amir Sagi at the Department of Life Sciences and the National Institute for
Biotechnology in the Negev, and registered as a patent, stepped in and is commercially
promoted and implemented by Tiran Group on exclusive basis.
The final goal of Professor Amir Sagi project is increasing prawn yields. The project
started under the microscope with microsurgical manipulation of a male specific
endocrine gland. The manipulation resulted with sex reversal of males into females
with reproduction ability. However, this was a laboratory procedure, complicated,
difficult and not suitable for real production. The commercial technology came to

2. reality when Professor Amir Sagi used specific molecular sex markers to distinguish the
male and female at a very young age. At this young age microinjections were used to
cause sex reversal of males through silencing the insulin-like androgenic gland into
females. The females that were created (termed neo-females) produce large amounts
of All-Male progeny with high reproducibility and success rate.
All-male freshwater prawn raised by farmer customer

3. Following the establishment of the All-Male technology, wide public concern was
expressed regarding the GMO nature of the inventions. However, the silencing
technology is made at an early stage in life of males (that have the ZZ sex chromosomes)
which are made into neo-females with the ZZ genotype. These sex reversed males are
with the ZZ genotype and no genomic modification is made. Moreover, when crossing
these neo-females with normal males the result is of all male ZZ progeny to be grown
as All-Male in the farm. Thus actually the farmer is growing normal males and selling
normal males. Studies were published by Prof. Sagi to prove the safely in use of this
technology and the patented technology is clearly NON GMO. The patented
technology was registered by Tiran worldwide.
All-male freshwater prawns are much bigger than normal freshwater prawns
Why all-male freshwater prawns? Males are much larger than females. Female may
grow up to 25-50 gram over 5-6 months growout season while the males grow to 80-
100 gram and more at the same period of time and the same feeding rate. Normally,
when growing All-Male freshwater prawns it is hard to show their advantage at the
first 3 months of growing. However when prawns reach maturity after 3 months, they
show the obvious growing advantage compared to normal mix population of
freshwater prawns.

4. Growing table show all-male freshwater prawn (yellow line), normal freshwater prawn (black
line), all-female from normal freshwater prawns (blue line)
Current situation:
In Vietnam, the All-Male PLs produced by Tiran achieved a success from production of
All Male juveniles up to sales at market size. The high yield performance won farmers
confidence in a way that customers today favor All-male juveniles. In China, the all-
male freshwater prawn juvenile production is on a rise but still limited due to the
production capacity of Tiran’s farm. Tiran concluded agreements to cooperate with
leading hatcheries to produce the All-Male PLs in order to increase supply and meet
the high demands of farmers for grow out.
Future:
The prawn marketing is done by New Horizon (a subsidiary company of Tiran) in means
of sales of larvae produced by New Horizon in its own farms in China and Vietnam to
hatcheries to produce post- larvae and then sell these to raising farms and Sale of post-
larvae produced by New Horizon to raising farms directly, or through distributors.
Tiran is geared for large scale of production of all-male PLs from Neo Female produced
in its facilities in Israel. To ensure best performance Tiran is introducing a package of
new technologies such as water treatment systems and experts that could supervise
and support the production.

5. Summary:-
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that more than
40 percent of the seafood consumed worldwide is coming from aquaculture and that
production must double to meet the expected demand by 2030.
Tiran inspiration is to promote the All-Male freshwater prawn technology into the huge
markets of Asia in General and China & Vietnam in particular with the intention to gain
a significant impact on the global Giant Freshwater Prawn market.
For more information you are welcome to contact Tiran Group:-
Haim Avioz or Eyal Avioz – Tiran Group of companies and New Horizon
Tel: +972 4 8509000 ** Email: havioz@tiran.co.il and eavioz@tiran.co.il