U.S. shrimp imports slipped 1.9 percent in the first three months of this year, to 272.9 million pounds, the National Marine Fisheries Service reported late last week. That's the first first-quarter drop since 2005, when shrimp imports tumbled 24.7 percent, to 247.8 million pounds, in the wake of shrimp tariffs being enacted.
Shrimp imports from Thailand, by far the United States' No. 1 shrimp supplier, fell 11.9 percent in the first quarter, to 77.1 million pounds, while imports from China plummeted 27.1 percent, to 28.4 million pounds.
However, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia picked up the slack. Shrimp imports from Indonesia, the United States' No. 3 shrimp supplier so far this year, increased a whopping 65.4 percent, to 45.7 million pounds.
Shrimp imports from Vietnam jumped 45 percent, to 19 million pounds, while imports from Malaysia climbed 53.6 percent, to 15.6 million pounds.
U.S. tilapia imports also fell slightly in the first three months of this year. They totaled 102.9 million pounds, down 2 percent from the same period last year, according to NMFS.
Frozen tilapia imports from China increased 4.7 percent, to 52.6 million pounds. United States relies on China for upward of 90 percent its total frozen-tilapia imports, and China's stormiest winter in 50 years clouded this spring's frozen-tilapia supply picture. But China's hardest hit provinces - Hunan, Guizhou, Hubei and Jiangxi - are not major tilapia producers.
