July 24, 2013

During the first half of 2013, the EU shrimp market is expected to stagnate as the region has been suffering impacts of economic recession and declining supplies from some main producing countries like Thailand due to shrimp disease.

However, after a quiet period for the past few months, the market began to show signs of improvement since late February 2013. Imports from Asia are also increasing.

Referring to statistics from International Trade Centre (ITC), shrimp imports into the EU totalled US$883 million between January and March 2013, down 8.4% from the corresponding period of 2012.

However, EU considerably increased imports from some Asian countries. In the first three months of 2013, purchase from India had a worth of US$103.7 million, up 6.59% from US$96.89 million in the same time of 2012. Shrimps from Bangladesh rose 7.69% from US$59 million to US$63.9 million.

Other shrimp suppliers such as Ecuador, Thailand and Vietnam, continued to witness drops of 14.1%, 22.7% and 15.1% respectively. With positive growth in the first three months of 2013, India has passed Ecuador to be the leading supplier to the EU.

India and Bangladesh have been increasing exports to the region as they have more advantages over other suppliers. Bangladesh shrimp exporters to the EU have been beneficiaries to 0% duty rate as the country gained EU's Generalised System of Preferences (GSP). White leg shrimp harvests of India has increased in recent years, thus broadening white leg shrimp's shares in main importing markets like the EU and the US. During January- March 2013, US shrimp imports from India increased 69.2% over the same period of 2012.

Vietnam and Thailand will face difficultly in increasing shrimp exports to the EU in 2013 as their shrimp production are still affected by shrimp disease.

In 2012, the EU imported nearly US$4.5 billion of shrimp products, down over 30.5% from 2011. This was the sharpest drop recorded since 1995. According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), deepening Euro-area recession and rising consumer prices, coupled with austerity measures in some countries, have affected the EU shrimp market.