U.S. shrimp exports to China are down this year, despite an agreement by China to buy more American seafood.
From January to August, the most recent month for which data are available, the United States exported a total of USD 2.6 million (EUR 2.2 million) worth of shrimp to China, down significantly on the same period last year, when the U.S. exported USD 4.6 million (EUR 3.9 million) worth of shrimp to China, according to the Florida-based Southern Shrimp Alliance. From January to August 2018, the United States exported USD 7.7 million (EUR 6.5 million) worth of shrimp to China.
The data suggests China – which has rejected some shipments of Ecuadorian and Indian shrimp imports on claims of coronavirus infection – has not picked up major purchasing of U.S. crustaceans in line with the “Phase One” trade agreement in which China promised to increase imports of U.S. food products.
China imported USD 9.9 billion (EUR 8.4 billion) worth of U.S. food, agricultural, and seafood products in the first seven months of 2020, barely a quarter of the target set under the “Phase One” agreement, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics. However, China’s purchases of key commodities like grain tend to be skewered towards the autumn harvest season.
Meanwhile, claims that Chinese shrimp exporters are mislabeling farmed shrimp as wild for import into the U.S. remains a concern of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. The group claims that Chinese importers may be misrepresenting farmed shrimp as wild in order to get around U.S. Food and Drug Administration's scrutiny of farmed product for overuse of antibiotics.
The organization “has raised the lack of statistical breakouts for wild-caught and farm-raised shrimp in the harmonized tariff schedule of the United States [HTSUS] with the U.S. International Trade Commission in that agency's ongoing investigation of illegal, unreported, and unregulated seafood,” Alliance CEO John Williams told SeafoodSource.
“It is hoped that the U.S. government will adopt better public tracking tools for wild-caught shrimp imports next year,” he said. “This will still leave open the possibility of wild-caught shrimp being mislabeled as farm-raised, but further specificity in trade data reporting requirements will assist in identifying potential problems.”
Photo courtesy of Funtay/Shutterstock
