Global shrimp production is currently growing at a slow rate of 4.8 percent per year that will see it reach a total volume of around five million metric tons (MT) by 2019, delegates heard at the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) GOAL 2017 conference in Dublin, Ireland.
While a few shining lights like India and Ecuador have seen their production levels soar in recent years, the impact of their growth from a global perspective has been tempered by a contraction of the Chinese harvest, which is expected to fall by 20 percent to 900,000 MT this year.
It was highlighted that moving forward, China’s shrimp industry needs to make significant investments into establishing much more robust environmental controls and standards, as well as better breeding programs.
Speaking at GOAL, Jim Anderson, director at the Institute for Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Florida, said that due to disease problems, production decreased substantially in both China and Thailand in 2013, with only partial recovery expected by 2019. Also in Asia, production has been fluctuating in Vietnam and Indonesia but there are positive growth expectations within the same timescale.
Production in India is expected rise from 434,484 MT to exceed 600,000 MT valued at USD 6 billion (EUR 5.1 billion) this year.
In Latin America, Ecuador’s shrimp production should reach a level of 420,000 MT this year, an increase of 11 percent compared to 2016. Ecuadorian shrimp production has in fact increased by 193 percent in the past nine years.
Also in Latin America, Mexico has recovered after being hit by early mortality syndrome (EMS) in 2013, while Brazil is expected to ramp up its recent production level of around 75,000 MT to 100,000 MT by 2019.
In 2018, the global shrimp sector should expect higher feed prices; slightly stronger markets than this year; and somewhat better global economic conditions, said Anderson.
But the industry will also continue to have its issues and challenges. In Asia, these are led by disease, then seed stock and availability, and access to disease-free broodstock. In Latin America, production costs (feed and fishmeal) provide the biggest headache, followed by disease and then market prices.
