Mexico, Vietnam, and Thailand each increased their year-over-year shrimp exports to the United States by significant margins in the month of August, but none are even close to matching India’s total.
Mexico increased its U.S. shrimp export total to 1,599 metric tons (MT), or more than 3.5 million pounds in August 2019, up nearly 55 percent over its August 2018 figure. Vietnam followed Mexico in increasing its shrimp exports to the U.S. to 7,458 MT, or 16.4 million pounds, up 22.3 percent over a year prior. And Thailand pushed its exports up 18 percent to 3,964 MT, or 8.7 million pounds.
But once again, shrimp imports to the U.S. were dominated by India, which increased its year-over-year figure for August by 14.7 percent to 29,702 MT, or 65.5 million pounds.
China’s shrimp exports to the U.S. continued their precipitous drop, falling 62 percent comparing August 2019 and the same month a year prior. Thus far in 2019, China’s shrimp exports are down by nearly nearly 35.2 million pounds, or 53.4 percent over 2018, slumping to a 2019 total of 30.7 million pounds (13,939 MT). Thailand is also down for the year by nearly 11 percent, or 6.7 million pounds, to 55.3 million pounds (25,092 MT).
India seems capable of filling that gap, as it has increased its imports in 2019 by 44.1 million pounds to 376.2 million pounds (170,705 MT), a jump of 13.3 percent.
Ecuador and Vietnam have both increased their year-to-date shrimp exports to the united states by more than 9 percent, with Ecuador’s total reaching 124.3 million pounds (56,409 MT) and Vietnam’s reaching 77.1 million pounds, or 34,981 MT.
Year-to-date export decreases were also registered by Indonesia (down 2.7 percent), Peru (down 22.5 percent), and Honduras (down 40.6 percent).
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