FAO’s latest Globefish report has revealed that global production of farmed shrimp in 2016 remained stagnant, or even fell, compared to the year before owing to lower international prices and outbreaks of disease in a few leading producing countries
According to the report, the main season for farmed shrimp in Asia ended in November with an overall sluggish trend in production. This went against the earlier forecast of increased production in 2016.
Preliminary 2016 production data for farmed shrimp suggest that recovery in Thailand and strong harvests in Ecuador were not enough to offset the falling production of farmed shrimp in China and Vietnam due to persistent shrimp disease and related issues. The average per hectare harvest in Vietnam reportedly declined by 50 per cent, due to poor quality shrimp fry and slow growth. Due to production issues, both China and Vietnam had to import large quantities of shrimp for reprocessing and export.
Overall production in India and Indonesia, the two other large producers of farmed shrimp in Asia, is expected to be lower than the early 2016 forecast. In Latin America, farmed shrimp production increased moderately in Ecuador, but in Mexico disease and premature harvests negatively impacted volume growth. Farmed shrimp supplies also did not improve in other countries in the Central and South American region.
Even with lower than expected growth in shrimp aquaculture, India moved to the leading exporter in international shrimp trade during the first nine months of 2016, followed by Ecuador, Thailand, Indonesia and China. Compared with the same period in 2015, exports from India increased by 11.6 per cent, totaling 315,400 tonnes. Ecuador also increased exports by 7.5 per cent (276,000 tonnes) during this period with increased sales to East Asia, the Russian Federation and Latin America.
