From May until July, U.S. shrimp imports dipped below the volume numbers for the same months in 2017. Contrary to what we expected in the third edition of ShrimpTails, however, imports have picked up the trend that we witnessed in the first four months of the year and year-on-year records are broken once more. With just two months left in the year, October’s year-to date numbers show that import volumes are ahead of last year by 5 percent. If we assume that in the last two months of 2018 the U.S. imports are of at least a similar volume as in the last two months of 2017 - and there is no reason to doubt this - the U.S. will set another record with shrimp imports surpassing 700,000 metric tons. What are the reasons behind these record imports, and how may the market situation affect prices and demand in the first quarter of 2019? Ken Salzinger (writer of the blog Ken’s Catch) and Willem van der Pijl joined forces to try and figure it out.
March 11, 2019
