The U.S. started 2019 off with fewer imports than in 2018, mainly due to high inventories and importers having no reason to buy new stock at origin at prices lower than they would get for the stock they still had to sell. As a result, importers and distributors focused on first selling their stock that was already in the U.S.
Although buying for program business continued at a moderate level throughout 2019, buying for street business has been very limited so far. However, Shrimptails expects stocks to be back to healthier levels by June and that U.S. buyers will start buying once producers in Asia harvest new crop, hopefully in September.
