Marine Shrimp in Asia: Production mired by low prices and disease outbreaks in 2022

More outbreaks of WSSV, AHPND and WFS/EHP were reported, linked to adverse climate conditions

By Zuridah Merican

The estimates on global production of farmed marine shrimp for 2022 are around 5.5 million tonnes, comprising vannamei and black tiger shrimp by the GOAL survey (see pages 60-61). Asia contributed more than 3.5 million tonnes. In January 2023, the Shrimp Panel at the Global Seafood Marketing Conference (GSMC) estimated 4.973 million tonnes of vannamei shrimp with Asia contributing 2.955 million tonnes.

Up to November 2022, the US imported less shrimp at 779,725 tonnes compared to the same period in 2021 at 808,534 tonnes. Seafoodsource.com reported that in the second half of 2022, monthly imports were lower compared to those in the previous year. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) data indicated less imports from India (-9%), Indonesia (-2%), Vietnam (-14%) and China (-35%).

The expectation is that 2023 will be a difficult year following the lower stocking rates of the last quarter; the second half of the year will depend on shrimp price movement and the world economy both of which will affect the purchasing power and hence consumption. It is expected that countries with domestic consumption will be less affected than those dependent on exports (GSMC, 2023).

With regards to global production in 2023, the GSMC shrimp panel forecasted a 1% decrease to 4.870 million tonnes. According to Nikolik and Sharma (2022), industry remains optimistic on supply in 2023 with growth in supply and recovery in Chinese production. Asia’s contribution will increase 4% to 4 million tonnes in 2023. Meanwhile industry in Ecuador expects exports of 1.02 million tonnes from a production of 1.4 million tonnes in 2023.

In the following paragraphs, we discuss recent developments in Asia’s shrimp aquaculture industry, based on information from industry, presentations at recent conferences and news reports.

2023

Table 1. Some industry estimates (tonnes) of farmed shrimp production in major countries in Asia. DOF- Department of Fisheries, Thailand; SAP - Society of Aquaculture Professionals, India; GSMC 2023 -Global Seafood Marketing Conference, 15 -19 January 2023, Palm Springs, California, USA; SCI- Shrimp Club Indonesia; Manoj Sharma, Mayank Aquaculture, India; Philippines Statistics Authority.