Indian shrimp producers are enjoying a boom in export volume and value, thanks in no small part to the fall in aquaculture production in countries where crops have been hard-hit by Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS) disease, coupled with the US Government’s lifting of countervailing duties that had been imposed on exporters.
According to figures released by India’s Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), receipts for shrimp sales abroad from April through December of 2013 skyrocketed almost 90% to Rs 14,364.45 crore. In volume and US dollar terms, tonnage tipped the scales at 229,010 valued at $2,396.30 million.
Recent statistics published in the United States show that India was the No. 1 exporter of shrimp to that market last year, which absorbed 206,105,406 pounds of Indian product – well ahead of 183,875,406 pounds sourced from Thailand during 2013.
Thai producers have been impacted significantly by EMS, as have other farmed shrimp farmers in Southeast Asia and beyond. In 2012 Thailand was the top supplier to the US market, which imported 298,125,033 pounds from that nation, compared to 144,402,590 pounds from India.
Production shortfalls in Vietnam and Malaysia have prompted processors in those countries, as well as packers and traders in the PRC, Taiwan, Korea and elsewhere, to boost imports from India in order to meet orders booked before the scope of the spread of EMS was known.
The supply crunch resulting from the impact of the EMS pathogen, which causes the digestive organs of shrimp to deteriorate and ultimately shut down, has spurred price increases of between US $2 to $3 per kilogram for 20-30 count shrimp during the past year. Overall imports by the USA reportedly fell 4.9% during 2013, and the price of benchmark 26-30 count headless shell-on white shrimp jumped 53%.
The United States is the biggest market for Indian shrimp, accounting for more than 51% of the nation’s exports from April to December. Shipments to that country have increased significantly since last September, when countervailing duties applied for alleged dumping were slashed from 5.85% to zero. The East Asia region, which took approximately 16% of India’s shrimp exports, ranked second. Third was the European Union at just under 16%, while Japan ranked fourth at almost 5%.
