A free trade agreement (FTA) signed in May 2023 by China and Ecuador came into effect at the beginning of May.
Ecuadorian shrimp has become a favorite in China, increasing its shipments tenfold to China between 2018 and 2022. Ecuador accounted for 697,357 metric tons (MT) of China’s 987,601 MT of shrimp imports in 2023, accounting for a 71 percent market share. However, Ecuador’s shrimp exports to China fell 21.5 percent by volume and 32.3 percent by value in February 2023. Most of China’s Ecuadorian imports are head-on, shell-on (HOSO) shrimp that are processed into value-added products for the domestic market and reexport.
China’s shrimp imports were up 12.4 percent by volume but down 4.2 percent by value in 2023 – a sign China is struggling to keep up with large volumes of cheaper imported shrimp. The trend was a global one, with the value of shrimp imports into the top four markets – China, the E.U., Japan, and the U.S. – falling from USD 19.7 billion (EUR 18.5 billion) in 2022 to around USD 17.3 billion (EUR 16.2 billion) in 2023, according to Shrimp Insights.
Between January and March 2024, China’s shrimp exports dropped 15 percent by value to USD 1.1 billion (EUR 1 billion) and 3 percent by volume to 231,128 MT, according to China Customs statistics.
While the near-term outlook for how the FTA will impact Ecuador’s shrimp exports to China remains uncertain due to China’s economic instability, longer term, it is likely to result in Chinese consumers paying less for shrimp, resulting in a widening of the Chinese consumer market. Shrimp is already considered "cheap" compared to a decade ago, explained Didier Boon, head of the Beijing-based East China Seas trading company.
“Shrimp used to be more expensive than steak, but now, it’s a mass-consumer product,” Boon told SeafoodSource.
However, imports from Ecuador could end up harming China’s seafood economy, according to Boon. A slump in Chinese demand in the first year of the Covid pandemic forced many Ecuadorian exporters to shift from head-on, tail-on exports to value-added products, effectively pitting Ecuadorian exporters against Chinese processors, Boon said.
Ecuadorian packers are now competing for consumers at high-end supermarkets with frozen offerings. A 1.8-kilo box of shrimp of 30- to 40-sized NIRSA Group-owned Real brand shrimp goes for CNY 129 (USD 17.89, EUR 16.61) at the premium T11 Fresh Plaza Food Market in the basement of the Central Park Plaza building near Beijing’s Chaoyang Park. Also, 2-kilo frozen boxes of white shrimp from Ecuadorian shrimp firm Champmar sells at CNY 109.90 (USD 15.38, EUR 14.2) at the upmarket BHG store in Beijing’s Sanlitun entertainment district sold alongside premium gift boxes packaged by Thai giant CP Foods.
