March 21, 2008
2007 a year Indian shrimp exporters would rather forget
Indian shrimp exporters continue to see a decline in their major markets in 2007, especially in the two major markets of Japan and the US.
Shrimp exports suffered in major markets like the US and Japan in 2007. Exports to the US dropped 24 percent from 27,277 tonnes to 20,776 tonnes, half the level of what was shipped in 2004.
During the year, imports by Japan dropped 5.2 percent to 27,025 tonnes as against 28,546 tonnes in 2006.
Japan's overall import of shrimp during 2007 declined to 276,222 tonnes as against 301,078 tonnes in the previous year. In fact, imports in 2007 were the lowest by Japan since 2003.
The value of Japanese import, too, slipped to US$2.25 billion as against US$2.49 billion in 2006.
With the exception of Thailand and China, Japan's imports from shrimp producing countries such as Myanmar, Bangladesh and the Philippines dropped mainly due to stricter rules on antibiotics.
Thailand's exports were up by 31 per cent while Chinese shipments rose marginally.
However, India's exports of fish to Japan increased by 12 percent in quantity and 17 percent in value.
Although China and Thailand did well in Japan, they saw lower volumes in the US:
Chinese exports saw a near 30-percent drop to 45,419 tonnes while Thai shrimp exports to the US fell nearly 3 percent to 188,319 tonnes.
The slack Japanese market and anti-dumping duties also affected Indian exporters as the number of Indian shrimp exporters to the US declined to 80 in 2006-07 from 179 in 2001-02.
India had exported a record 612,641 tonnes of marine products valued at Rs 8,363.53 crore ( 1 crore = 10 million) during 2006-07, up 19.62 per cent in quantity and 15.43 per cent in rupee value. Fifty-five percent of the total value of the exported items was realised from shrimp.
The EU is the largest market for Indian marine products (34 percent) followed by Japan (16.1 percent), the USA (16.03 percent) and China with 14 percent.
