Shrimp exports collapse
The emergence of an ever-affluent mass of Chinese consumers means China’s exports of shrimp are in terminal decline: they fell a massive 26 percent in value terms last year and were down 16 percent in volume, to 149,000 tons worth USD 1.62 billion (EUR 1.44 billion). This makes shrimp the country’s third-most important export category in 2015, accounting for 10.6 percent of exports on 179,000 tons, versus its second-placed status in 2014.
Once a key global supplier of shrimp, China status has declined in recent years, though it remains the foremost producer of farmed shrimp in Asia. In 2014, it produced 1.01 million tons of farmed shrimp, up from 910,000 tons in 2013 and more than twice as much as second- and third-place Indonesia and Vietnam. But its production is also growing much more slowly than India, which has displaced China in sales to the U.S., the world’s biggest buyer of shrimp.
While China’s exports fell 13.6 percent in 2014, its imports of shrimp rose a significant 10 percent to 78,000 tons, though that figure may be understated given it includes only official imports and not imports funnelled through Vietnam to avoid customs duties.
