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Description
Give me your cultivated black tigers from Thailand, wild tigers from Nigeria, whites from China and South America, reds from India, Argentine pinks, Oman tails, freshwater prawns from Vietnam, and brown shrimp from Mexico. The United States has long been a megamarket for exporters of frozen shrimp the world over. Is the bright beacon of free trade about to fade?
With demand for shrimp imports by Japan relatively flat during the past decade due to the nation's nagging recession, the US market has loomed ever larger in importance for Asian exporters. All the more so recently, following implementation of stringent European Union inspection standards [see related story on page 62] which have resulted in rejections and even destruction of imports discovered to have trace elements of banned substances.
It's a good thing, then, that the growing appetite Americans have for shrimp shows no sign of abating. In 2001, for the first time in history, the popular shellfish was ranked as the number one fishery product consumed in the country. Per capita intake reached 3.4 pounds, surpassing 2.9 pounds for second-ranked tuna. Over the last decade, consumption of shrimp in the US has increased by almost one pound per person.
This has been stimulated in no small part by lower prices resulting from rising aquaculture production around the world. Imports last year rose 7% last year to a record high of 429,303 metric tons. At the same time, dollar value slipped 6% to $3.4 billion. That followed a 16% surge in volume and a 5% reduction in value in 2001--to 400,337 tons and $3.6 billion, respectively.
Thailand is the leading exporter to the US market, sending 115,104 metric tons of primarily farm-raised Peneaus monodon shrimp in 2002. China ranked second with shipments totaling 49,507 tons, up 77% over the year before thanks to a sharp increase in output of cultured Peneaus vannamei. Next were Vietnam with 44,686 tons (+34%), and India with 44,244 (+35%).
Three Latin countries completed the "Top Seven" list of suppliers: Ecuador, 26,297 (+40%) metric tons; Mexico, 24,297 (-19%); and Brazil, 17,773 (+81%).
So all is well, right? The supply line is bringing in more product at lower prices, thus enabling more folks to affordably enjoy more shrimp cocktails, beer battered prawns, and "all you can eat" fried shrimp dinners for $9.99.
Wait just a minute, says Eddie Gordon, who believes that artificially depressed prices are threatening to soon make an already endangered US domestic shrimp catching industry extinct. By his calculations, dockside prices that American shrimpers fetch today are actually lower than they... |
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