U.S. shrimp imports dropped for the first time in four months in August, totaling 125.8 million pounds, down 2.8 percent compared to August 2007, according to statistics released late last week by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
However, U.S. shrimp imports through August, which reached 747.2 million pounds, are still up 0.3 percent from the same eight-month period last year. In July, they were up year-to-year for the first time since February.
Through August, imports from Thailand and Ecuador - the two top U.S. shrimp suppliers last year - were down 6.5 percent and 3 percent from last year, to 232.1 million and 91.2 million pounds, respectively.
Indonesia is picking up the slack, exporting 131.8 million pounds of shrimp to the United States through August, up a staggering 53.3 percent from last year.
In 2007, U.S. shrimp imports slipped for the first time in several years, tumbling more than 73 million pounds, to 1.23 billion pounds.
