World Shrimp Farming 2003

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In 2003, shrimp farmers worldwide struggled with trade issues, new antibiotic standards and a glut of farmed shrimp—all of which contributed to the third year in a row of painfully low prices. From June 2000 to June 2003, the Urner Barry (www.urnerbarry.com) shell-on white shrimp index plummeted from $6.50 a pound to less than $3.50 a pound. That says it all. Amazingly, however, some shrimp farmers are making money at these prices and production continues to expand, particularly in Vietnam, Brazil and China.

As this publication goes to press (October 7, 2003), shrimp farmers in as many as 12 countries face antidumping charges brought by shrimp fishermen in the southeastern United States. I have not seen the fishermen's case yet, but it should become part of the public record as soon as it's filed (supposedly any day now) with the International Trade Commission (www.usitc.gov). It could be the end of the day for commercial shrimp fishermen in the USA if they lose the antidumping action. Can you handle 25 pages on dumping? Day-by-day. Chapter One!

Shrimp importing nations have set the tolerance for antibiotics in farmed shrimp at close to zero (0.3 parts per billion, with the ability to detect down to 0.1 ppb). Shrimp farmers have no choice. They either stop using antibiotics or their products will be rejected--in some cases destroyed--by the importing countries.

The giant tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon), cultured throughout Asia, has always represented more than fifty percent of world production of farmed shrimp, with the western white shrimp (P. vannamei), which represents close to 100% of production in the Western Hemisphere, coming in second. Over the last fifteen years, however, there have been several successful vannamei introductions around the world, and now more vannamei is produced in the Eastern Hemisphere than in the Western Hemisphere! Vannamei has a lot going for it, and you'll see references to it throughout this report.

Freshwater prawn farming (Macrobrachium spp.) continues to expand, especially in China, Vietnam and India. Someday prawn production might surpass shrimp production! The prawn farming boom in the United States has lost some of its energy as farmers learn hard lessons about production costs, marketing and the human effort it takes to run a prawn farm. But they're still at it as you'll discover in the USA section. Are they making money? Not yet.

The shrimp hatchery industry is slowly severing its ties to wild broodstock and postlarvae. In the Western Hemisphere, almost all seedstock originates from captive vannamei broodstock. Some of the stocks have been in captivity for over twenty years. Many of them have been selected for growth and survival. Some of the broodstock is disease free and maintained in biosecure, recirculating maturation facilities. In the Eastern Hemisphere, still dependent on wild monodon broodstock and postlarvae, several countries are developing biosecure maturation facilities for monodon, and several others are looking into their development.

Finally, on September 9, 2003, the National Fisheries Institute, a non-profit fisheries trade association in the USA, reported: Per-capita shrimp consumption in the USA climbed to a record 3.7 pounds in 2002, up from 3.4 pounds in 2001, which was also a record year.

Bob Rosenberry
October 7, 2003