The Japanese wholesale price for Thai-origin vannamei (13 grams each, headless shell-on) in early October was JPY 2,200 to JPY 2,400 per 1.8-kilogram (kg) block (approx USD 5.80/EUR 4.29) per pound), a record high price and nearly double that of the same period last year.
One supermarket chain in the Tokyo metropolitan area reported vannamei sales in September had decreased by 70 percent year-on-year due to high prices, and some Japanese supermarkets are now offering cheaper, smaller-sized product. Shrimp is being replaced with surimi seafood in rolled sushi and rice balls, and a major conveyor-belt sushi chain is experimenting with red shrimp from Argentina, which has not risen in price.
More product from Indonesia, Bangladesh and India is seen in Japan, though entry of Indian shrimp is hindered by stringent restrictions on chemical residues. Indonesian shell-on headless 16/20 black tigers, a benchmark price, were at JPY 3,600 (USD 35.57, EUR 26.30) to JPY 4,000 (USD 39.53, EUR 29.22) per 1.8 kg block in early October, as compared with JPY 2,200 (USD 21.73, EUR 16) to JPY 2,400 (USD 23.71, EUR 17.53) a year ago.
The main cause of the supply shortage is spread of early mortality syndrome (EMS) in Thailand, following outbreaks in China, Vietnam and Malaysia. EMS is caused when a relatively common orally transmitted bacterium, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, colonizes the shrimp’s gastrointestinal tract. If the bacteria are infected by a virus known as a phage, this causes it to release a potent toxin that causes tissue destruction and dysfunction of the shrimp’s digestive organ known as the hepatopancreas.
Cultured vannamei shrimp in Thailand have been hit hard by the disease. The Thai Frozen Foods Association expects that the production volume this year will drop to 270,000 metric tons (MT) due to the disease and to the lower stocking rates that farmers are adopting to cut their risk. This is a drop in production of 50 percent, and equals a 5 percent reduction in the worldwide supply. World production of farmed shrimp in 2011 was 4.96 million MT, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. While Thailand is the world’s No. 2 producer, at 530,000 MT, or about a 10 percent production share, it exports 80 percent of its production, making it the world's largest shrimp exporter.
China is the world's largest producer, though it consumes most of its own production. But there was a resurgence of the disease in China in June and July of this year, leading China to increase imports from Southeast Asia to make up for the shortfall, and this has further added to worldwide demand.
U.S. demand for Southeast Asia shrimp is also rising ahead of the Christmas season. Harvests of shrimp in the region typically increase in the summer and American buyers had held back in the hope that prices would come down, but as the Christmas buying period is approaching, they could not wait any longer, and are rushing to procure product now, adding additional demand.
