January 11, 2007

China's shrimp export to the US makes further recovery in 2006

While Thailand is the top shrimp supplier to US, accounting for a third of total US shrimp imports, China is the second largest shrimp supplier, with 11.3 percent of the total import volume.

In third and the fourth places are Indonesia and Ecuador respectively.

The combined volume of shrimps from these four countries accounted for 65.3 percent of US shrimp import volume, compared with 59 percent in 2005.

For 2006, China made the most significant increase among the four, with volumes increasing 62 percent. 

US imports of frozen crumb shrimps grew 19.8 percent in 2006. China was the main supplier of frozen crumb shrimps to the US, accounting for 80 percent of the market, followed by Thailand, with 13 percent.

China's shrimp exports have been making a slow recovery since taking a huge hit in 2004. From import trends in 2006, it can be seen that the proportion of frozen shrimps have fallen while the proportion of processed products have risen.

In addition, the trend of rising shrimp exports is likely to continue to support the recovery of China's shrimp export industry.