India, Indonesia, and Ecuador remained the top three exporters of shrimp to the U.S. in October 2024, but while India and Indonesia saw small year over year increases, Ecuador saw a significant decline.
India exported 67.1 million pounds, or 30,457 metric tons (MT), to the U.S. in October, a 2-percent increase from October 2023, when the country imported 65.8 million pounds (29,860 MT).
Indonesia exported 29 million pounds (13,140 MT), up 1 percent from 28.7 million pounds (13,009 MT) in October 2023.
Ecuador saw a 26.6 percent year-over-year decline in October exporters to the U.S., with 31.9 million pounds (14,482 MT) in 2024, down from 40.4 million pounds (18,335 MT) in 2023.
Out of other top shrimp exporters to the U.S. in October 2024, Vietnam held fourth place with 18.4 million pounds (8,363 MT), Thailand came in fifth with 8 million pounds (3,613 MT), Mexico came sixth with 3.7 million pounds (1,698 MT), and Argentina came seventh with 2.3 million pounds (1,025 MT). No other country exported more than 2.1 million pounds (1,000 MT) of shrimp.
The United States imported a total of 164.3 million pounds (74,544 MT) of shrimp in October 2024, down from 168 million pounds (76,187) MT in October 2023. Thus far in 2024, the U.S. has imported 1.37 billion pounds (622,531MT) of shrimp, down slightly from 1.43 billion pounds (649,988 MT) in the same period in 2023, a 4.4 percent decline.
The Southern Shrimp Alliance also reported that as of 4 December, the FDA had refused three shrimp deliveries for reasons related to banned antibiotics in November, with an additional line refusal for the same reason in October that was not previously reported. Entry line refusals for banned antibiotics in 2024 are already, with one month of the year still yet to be counted, the highest recorded in seven years, according to the SSA.
Of the four reported refusals, two were from BAP-certified shrimp processors in India: GEO Seafoods and Asvini Fisheries. Both firms operate under four-star BAP certification for their processing plants and additional BAP certifications for their related shrimp farms. The other two producers who had lines refused were Malaysia-based EB Frozen Food and Hong Kong-based Wing Cheong Marine Product.
The FDA also reported refusing entry lines of shrimp from Indonesia-based Mega Marine Price and PT Bumi Pangan Utama for “added bulk."
