The volume of shrimp landed in the Gulf of Mexico last month was the lowest for any October since 2012, according to the latest statistics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries.
Total shrimp landings in October amounted to 11.7 million pounds (5,307 metric tons – MT), down from 13.5 million pounds (6,123 MT) in the corresponding month of 2015 and the lowest October volume for five years. A similar performance was achieved for the first 10 months of the year, with landings totaling almost 79 million pounds (35,834 MT), down from 88.4 million pounds (40,098 MT) in the corresponding period of last year and maintaining the steady decline seen every year since 2012 when landings totaled 98.7 million pounds (44,770 MT).
For January through October 2016, Texas landed 25.3 million pounds (11,476 MT) of shrimp, Louisiana 35.5 million pounds (16,103 MT), Mississippi 3.7 million pounds (1,678 MT), Alabama 9.7 million pounds (4,400 MT) and Florida 4.8 million pounds (2,177 MT).
The average ex-vessel price per pound of 15/20 sized headless shrimp in October was USD 5.68 (EUR 5.36) in the Eastern Gulf (Florida west coast ports), USD 5.81 (EUR 5.48) in the Northern Gulf (Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi) and USD 4.41 (EUR 4.16) in the Western Gulf (Texas ports).
For 41/50 sizes, prices stood at USD 2.22 (EUR 2.09) in the Eastern Gulf, USD 2.80 (EUR 2.64) in the Northern Gulf and USD 2 (EUR 1.89) in the Western Gulf.
Meanwhile, the United States imported 428,952 metric tons (MT) of shrimp in the first nine months of this year, up on the 415,009 MT that that the market brought in during the corresponding period of 2015, with India overtaking Indonesia as the market’s No. 1 supplier, providing the U.S. market with 106,291 MT of shrimp during the January through September 2016 period, followed by Indonesia with 89,777 MT, and then Ecuador and Thailand with 55,602 MT and 54,905 MT respectively. Of these countries, only Ecuador didn’t supply more shrimp to the United States than it did in the first nine months of 2015.
The United States imported more than 586,000 MT of shrimp with a total value of around USD 5.5 billion (EUR 5.2 billion) last year.
