November 27, 2013

With an aim of protecting its domestic production, the Federal Court of Brasilia suspended the entry of Argentinean shrimp (Pleoticus muelleri) in the Brazilian market despite the hard work carried out by the Undersecretariat of Fisheries of Argentina in recent months.

The Brazilian Association of Shrimp Breeders (ABCC) had filed an injunction a while ago to prevent the entry of the wild crustacean from Argentina. To date, the shipment of a container of shrimp directed to the Brazilian market has only been possible from the province of Chubut, in Argentinean Patagonia.

The presidents of Argentina and of Brazil, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Dilma Rousseff, respectively, coordinated the export of 5,000 tonnes of Argentinean shrimp to Brazil in December 2012.

The agreement reached allowed exports of only crustaceans belonging to sizes L1 and L2 to the Brazilian market, and with reference prices and smaller size specimens were excluded, recalled Revista Puerto.

In addition, the prawn had to be caught by the fleet based in the port of Rawson, and processed and frozen on land. The talks had begun in March 2012 but each time positions were approached, Brazil raised new requirements.

In August last year, the head of the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture (MPA) in Brazil, Marcelo Crivella signed an agreement noting that the reference price would be US$14 and US$12, depending on the size of the crustacean.

In January 2013, Argentinean officials received a Brazilian delegation headed by Crivella in Chubut, which was the opportunity to show the high quality processing level the processing plants have onshore in Rawson and Puerto Madryn.

But on November 1, 2013, the US Agricultural Attorney in Brasilia, Sidney Antonio Liberati, notified the Superintendent of Federal Agriculture about "the suspension of the authorisation to import shrimp."

During last September, 5,000 kilogrammes of shrimp were imported for a total of US$61,000, according to the data published by the Information Analysis System of Foreign Trade (Aliceweb). The company that imported them was Bom Peixe, reported Seafood Brasil.

For his part, ABCC President, Itamar Rocha, explained that between August and September 2013 Brazil exported some 314 tonnes of shrimp for US$2 million. And industry projections for the whole year intend to send a total of 1,000 tonnes abroad for US$7 million.