44 Feed Technology
Optimisation of feed margins As COVID-19 presents a real crisis for the aquaculture industry, it could also induce improvements in shrimp farming By Hervé Lucien-Brun
A
major impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on shrimp aquaculture has been the reduction of its main markets. Examples include confinement of people in their homes and closure of restaurants, especially in China and Europe, as well as the postponement of the Olympic Games in Japan, which caused a sudden stop of imports in this country.
This pandemic has caused a sharp decline in demand and a fall in market prices. In China, there was an increase in imports at the end of 2019, resulting more from speculation of Chinese importers counting on a short crisis and wishing to take advantage of lower prices. However, imports then collapsed as domestic demand failed to recover and prices continued to fall. While this led to serious financial problems for many Chinese importers, two attempts to Inresume this article, the use of a protease, as JEFO Pro Solution, the diet reduces2020, the impact were imports, in such May 2020 andin October on the environment in several ways: quickly thwarted due to suspicions of contaminating viruses • By reducing the level of crude protein in food and thus limiting environmental pollution in frozen Today, Chinese consumption of imported resulting seafood. from the dispersion of non-digestible proteins. • By making it possible to reduce the quantity of marine meal used in feedstuffs and thus seafood products is still resuming very cautiously due to reduce the need to take fish from industrial fishing. • Reducing the impact on the environment is important from an ecological point consumer suspicion regarding theabove riskallof contamination by of view, but also to ensure the sustainability of farms and to meet growing consumer demand. COVID-19 virus in imported products. This also contributes • -endto the fall in prices of imported frozen shrimp (Figure 1). USD/kg
Tonnes
100,000
8.00
90,000
7.50
80,000 70,000 60,000 50,000
Market reduction was not observed in the USA, where no widespread lockdown was imposed by federal authorities as was the case in China, Europe and India. However, a significant drop in prices occurred in the North American market. (Figure 2). Tonnes
USD/kg
800,000
10.00
700,000
9.50
600,000 500,000
9.00
400,000 8.50
300,000 200,000
7.00
100,000
6.50
0
6.00
40,000
Transportation too was a key factor impacted by the pandemic. A lack of labour due to containment measures caused an accumulation of full containers waiting to be unloaded in Chinese ports. Transport within China was also impacted, especially transport from ports to different markets, significantly increasing the cost of domestic transport. Both resulted in a lack of available containers for shipping companies, which has also contributed to the increase in transport costs.
8.00
2015
India Thailand
2016 Indonesia China
2017
2018
2019
Ecuador Others
2020
7.50
Vietnam Average price per kg
5.50
Source: https://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/.
30,000
5.00
20,000
4.50
10,000 0
Figure 2. Evolution of shrimp imports into US markets and average prices since 2015. Source: https://www.st.nmfs.noaa. gov/.
Figure 2 Evolution of shrimp imports into US markets and average prices since 2015.
4.00
The supply factor Ecuador Vietnam Others
India Thailand USD/kg
Argentina Saudi Arabia Linear (USD/kg)
Source: Chinese customs (HS code 030617). Direct imports only, excl cold-water.
Figure 1. Declining prices January 2018 for frozen Figure 1. Declining prices since January 2018since for frozen tropical shrimp imported into China. tropical shrimp imported into China. Source: Chinese customs (HS code 030617). Direct imports only, excl cold-water. 8
July/August 2021 AQUA Culture Asia Pacific
In countries such as India, farmed shrimp production was affected by government-imposed strict containment of populations, which brought about labour shortages and increased transportation costs for farms. The Indonesian archipelago also suffered from an inter-island transport disruption that caused a delay in stocking shrimp early in the year. 9
