Shrimp prices in Thailand are recovering after a slump of raw material prices over the past few weeks, according to Bangkok, Thailand-based seafood trader Siam Canadian Group.
The company’s latest update indicates demand from China and more retail orders from the United States and Canada have helped push up prices of 30/40/50 pieces-per-kilogram shrimp in Thailand. Therefore, processors and suppliers of shrimp in the country have had to pay more for their material.
According to Siam Canadian, the price of medium sizes has been stable. Harvests for the current crop will probably finish by the end of October, and farmers are not likely to raise the shrimp to larger sizes due to concerns about unpredictable weather and recent storms. As a result, more of the medium sizes will be harvested than larger sizes in Thailand.
“I don’t think it is likely that Thai farmers will try to increase production. Even with prices on some sizes pushing up, they are coming off very low prices, as far as the farmers are concerned, although much higher than other Asian origins,” Siam Canadian General Manager Jim Gulkin told SeafoodSource.
He said local farmers are not happy with material prices, and are demanding support from the government. They are pressuring the government to stabilize the prices for short term and commit to a long-term scheme.
Gulkin said he expects the strong demand for raw material will exist at least through October.
“Certainly most holiday business has already been concluded but shipments specifically for holiday sales will continue through to the end of October, and processors in Thailand have additional orders on the books well into Q1 2021,” he said.
On the production front, Gulkin said Thailand’s shrimp output is likely to decline between 5 percent and 10 percent in 2020.
The U.S. Soybean Export Council in May this year cited data from Thailand’s Department of Fisheries as saying that Thailand produced 317,839 metric tons (MT) of shrimp in 2019.
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