China’s leading shrimp producing regions are reporting a summer slump in prices due to a surge of supply and worries over the quality of some of the stock. Prices however remain up on the same period last year in Zhanjiang (Guangdong province) and Fujian which are reporting a CNY 10/kg (USD 1.60, EUR 1.40) per kilo fall since March for 50 head/500g vannemei shrimp.
A survey of pricing data from provincial offices of the agriculture ministry shows Guangdong ex-pond prices for vannemei have gone from CNY 34/kg (USD 5.40, EUR 5) per 50 head of shrimp, down 15 percent month on month but up 13 percent year on year. Prices for Guangxi shrimp, ex-pond, are averaging CNY 32-34 (USD 5.12 – USD 5.40)/kg for 53 head of shrimp, that’s down 8.3 percent month on month but up 18 percent year on year.
Shrimp prices are down, having soared around Chinese New Year, the traditional festivities season while month on month prices have dropped in July following the Dragon Boat festival in June, traditionally another boost for shrimp demand.
There are worries meanwhile over shrimp supply in more northerly parts of China, which had sought to plug the holes in supply caused by diseases in the southern regions in recent years. Key seafood markets in Shandong sell shrimp from Hebei province near Beijing: these are down 0.9 percent on June prices but up 7.1 percent year on year according to data from the important Weihai wholesale aquaculture market in Shandong. “There is a crisis in Hebei,” according to one trader in Weihai city who believes problems with viruses and inexperienced and fragmented shrimp farming in Hebei puts a question over efforts to expand shrimp breeding northwards.
An unusually hot summer in China has prompted shrimp farmers in parts of Guangdong to empty their ponds early, leading to an influx of shrimp in local markets and processing plants. “This means we’re getting a lot of fairly small shrimp but this will keep prices down for a few more months,” noted one Guangdong-focused trader who supplies shrimp to processors and exporters from an office in Guangzhou.
Meanwhile there has been a surprising element of criticism of international brood stock suppliers in a Fisheries Daily (published by the same group that publishes the Communist Party bible the People’s Daily) article which blamed low-quality American broodstock for slow-growing Vannemei shrimp in Chinese ponds. The article – which also points out a persistent problem in China with fake aquaculture antibiotics – quotes a shrimp farmer in Qinzhou (Guangxi province), Mr Lin, who claims after 70 days his 30 ponds have produced 130 head per 500g whereas normally there would be 50 or 60 head per 500g batch.
China’s shrimp industry is threatened: “There are uncontrollable factors at play like water pollution and climate. But we have controllable problems like fake antibiotics and inferior broodstock,” says the unsigned Fisheries Daily article. It names one well known U.S. firm supplying broodstock to China, claiming “we must question if it is supplying China with inferior breeding shrimp” – the article claims that shrimp supplied to India averages USD 65 per pair while broodstock supplied to China averaged USD 55 per pair.
The Fisheries Daily however concedes that domestic Chinese broodstock is often reclassified as “imported” by unscrupulous dealers seeking higher prices. Thus 40,000 broodstock pairs imported in the first half of 2015, according to customs data, may be as low as 10,000 in reality. China puts a quota of 250,000 pairs per year but low-quality water conditions have limited the quality of the domestic broodstock industry.
“China needs to improve the technical ability of its shrimp farmers and control diseases,” stresses the Fisheries Daily.
