Though the COVID-19 pandemic began to hit the United States with full force in March, one area it did not affect was the country’s imports of shrimp.
Statistics released by NOAA show the U.S. brought in 114.1 million pounds, or 51,761 metric tons (MT) of shrimp in March, up from 113.5 million pounds (51,473 MT), of shrimp in February 2020, and a 5.8 percent increase from March 2019, when the country imported 107.4 million pounds, or 48,741 MT.
Thus far in 2020, the United States has imported 370.6 million pounds (168,158 MT) of shrimp, up 13.2 percent from January through March in 2019, when the U.S. took in 321.8 million pounds, or 145,992 MT.
India, Indonesia, and Ecuador were the top three countries sending shrimp to the U.S., accounting for 79.2 percent of all U.S. imports in March and 78.1 percent thus far in 2020.
India shipped 43.9 million pounds (19,924 MT) in March 2020, up from 42.7 million pounds (19,375 MT) in March 2019, and representing 38.5 percent of all U.S. shrimp imports.
Indonesia upped its U.S. exports to 26.9 million pounds (12,208 MT), far beyond the 22.5 million pounds (10,202 MT) it sent to the U.S. in March 2019.
Ecuador also increased its shipments to 19.6 million pounds (8,870 MT) in March, moving up from 13.7 million pounds (6,219 MT) in the same month a year prior.
Vietnam, Thailand, Mexico, China, and Venezuela all recorded lower export totals to the U.S. compared to a year prior. Vietnam sent 6.1 million pounds (2,756 MT), down from 6.6 million pounds (2,982 MT); Thailand shipped 5.3 million pounds (2,392 MT), a drop from the approximately 7 million pounds (3,162 MT) it sent in March 2019; and Mexico exported 4.5 million pounds (2,026 MT), down from 4.6 million pounds (2,104 MT) in March 2019.
China’s exports cratered to 454,000 pounds, (206 MT) in March 2020, down from 1.5 million pounds (662 MT) in March 2019.
Argentina and Peru recorded slight increases in March 2020 over their totals from the same month a year prior.
Photo courtesy of Elenglush/Shutterstock
