India and Vietnam significantly increased their shrimp exports to the United States in August 2021.
India shipped 81.4 million pounds, or 36,773 metric tons (MT) to the U.S. in August, up from 66.3 million pounds of shrimp (30,070 metric tons), in July and 69.9 million pounds (31,692 MT) in August 2020.
Vietnam sent 28.4 million pounds (12,895 MT) of shrimp to the U.S. in August, up from 19.9 million pounds (9,034 MT) in July and 17.6 million pounds in August 2020.
The two countries contributed to a surge in overall U.S. shrimp imports in August. The U.S. imported 196.8 million pounds (89,243 MT) of shrimp during the month, up from 181.3 million pounds (82,249 MT) in August 2020. Between January through August, the U.S. imported 1.25 billion pounds (567,652 MT) of shrimp, up from 1.01 billion pounds (458,844 MT) year-over-year.
India and Vietnam have both contributed substantially higher volumes of shrimp to the total, but no country has seen a higher jump in their U.S. shrimp exports than Ecuador, which totaled 274.5 million pounds (124,522 MT) of shrimp sent to the United States between January and August 2021, up from 174.5 million pounds (79,150 MT) in the same time period in 2020. However, Ecuador’s U.S. exports were flat in August 2021 at 36.4 million pounds (16,496 MT) versus 36.3 million pounds (16,482 MT) in August 2020.
Besides India, Vietnam, and Ecuador; only Indonesia, Thailand, and Argentina exported more than 1,000 metric tons of shrimp to the U.S. in August. Indonesia exported 31.6 million pounds (14,134 MT) of shrimp to the U.S. in August, down from from 334 million pounds (15,149 MT) in August 2020. Thailand sent 10 million pounds (4,531 MT), up from 9.3 million pounds (4,203 MT) in August 2020. And Argentina shipped 2.3 million pounds, down from 3 million pounds (1,337 MT) in August 2020.
Photo courtesy of Visarut Sankham/Shutterstock
