Shrimp output in Thailand is expected to fall by half from its peak this year due to disease issues. In response, in August 2022, the Thai government unveiled a plan to import about 10,000 MT of shrimp from Ecuador and India to ease pressure caused by a domestic shortage of product.
Thailand’s shrimp production totals were among the largest in the world until 2012, when diseases including early mortality syndrome (EMS) began to ravage the industry. For 2022, the country is expected to produce 270,000 metric tons (MT) of shrimp, down more than a half from a peak of 600,000 MT in 2011, the Central Bank of Thailand said.
Diseases continue to take a toll on the industry in Thailand, and the government’s move to consider imports has come in response to shortages of available domestic shrimp, causing its processing factories to curtail production.
Thai Department of Fisheries Director General Chalermchai Suwannarak said there was a consensus from key stakeholders on the decision, according to Nikkei Asia. In conjunction with the move, the government set a guaranteed minimum price of between THB 119 and THB 180 (USD 3.18 and USD 4.81, EUR 3.24 and EUR 4.90) per kilogram for Thai shrimp to prevent the imports from harming local production. However, there remains fear among some in the industry that the imports will negatively affect prices in the local market, where processing companies generally hold more bargaining power than the disaggregated farming sector, which is comprised of approximately 30,000 individual shrimp farmers nationwide. One shrimp farmer told The Nation that local shrimp farmers were asking Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to renege on the decision, fearing it would “severely impact Thailand’s brand building for domestic shrimp and the image of the local industry.”
Thailand has set a 400,000-MT shrimp-production target for 2023. To achieve it, the country needs to spend more on research, with a specialy focus on minimizing the impact of shrimp diseases, according to the Thai Shrimp Association.
"Long-term assistance, like sharing know-how on better farming practices, is crucial," the group said.
The U.S. is the top market for Thai shrimp, followed by Japan. Thailand produced 138,733 MT of shrimp between January and July 2022, including 129,100 MT of vannamei and 9,632 MT of black tiger shrimp, according to Suwannarak, the Vietnam News Agency reported.
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