Vijaya Shrimp Farms and Export Ltd was incorporated in Jun.'92. It came out with a public issue during Dec.'93 to set up an acqua culture farm in Andhra Pradesh and cultivate Black Tiger variety as an 100% EOU. An In house hatchery for captive consumption and a farm for shrimp farming by semi-intensive methods were also part of its project. The reduction in demand for seeds led to the closure of the hatchery unit in 1996-97. Harvesting the ponds was also hampered and restricted to 6 ponds due to cyclonic heavy rains and floods during October 1996. In the subsequent year, viral diseas affected some of the ponds leading to crop loss. Due to spread of the viral disease to the entire Coastal belt during the moulting period, there was no harvesting during 1999-2000. The hatchery unit earlier closed was re-opened in April 1998 only to be closed down for repair work. Operations commenced again during January 1999 but since the company had stocked its ponds with its own seeds, the unit was again closed by June 1999 due to viral attacks. The company has gone for a crop holiday after the viral infection. Hatchery operations were re-started from April 2000.