The declining year-by-year growth trend of U.S. shrimp imports continued through July when import volumes into the U.S. totaled 55,952 tons. This was a decline of nine percent compared to July 2017, reducing 2018’s January-July import growth rate to only three percent compared to the same period in 2017. While year-on-year imports from most origins declined, imports from India showed strong growth with a volume of 23,500 tons. This growth was a result of us retail suppliers taking advantage of low Indian raw material prices and already placing orders before summer, where they would normally wait until the harvests of India’s second crop. As little has been harvested in India in July-October, and as U.S. importers might not buy a significant amount of India’s late second crop harvest, we expect U.S. imports from India to show a negative trend from October onwards. Keeping in mind the overall U.S. import trend, we expect the fourth quarter to show U.S. total shrimp imports in 2018 dipping below 2017 figures, resulting in a negative year-on-year growth rate at the end of 2018.
October 5, 2018
