November 24, 2011
Thai Shrimp Weekly: Shrimp prices continue to rally as processors resume normal operation (week ended Nov 23)
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Price summary
Thai shrimp prices continue to rally, rising by up to THB2-8/kg in Mahachai this week as most retail outlets started operating normally as floodwaters recede in Bangkok and nearby provinces.
The buying rates among seafood processors belonging to the Thai Frozen Foods Association were also up by THB2-5/kg as the threat of inundation in Samut Sakhon province, where most processed shrimp exporters are located, had subsided.
Market analysis
Floodwaters flowing out of Bangkok and nearby provinces had caused Samut Sakhon's mighty Tha Chin River to overflow, prompting the Federation of Thai Industries to warn the government that the country's lucrative shrimp and seafood exports were in peril.
More than 5000 factories, most of them seafood exporters and processors, operate in Samut Sakhon, employing more than 500,000 people. Thailand's number one seafood exporter, Thai Union Frozen Products (TUF), has its main plant in the Muang district of Samut Sakhon.
FTI estimated that the country would have lost THB150 billion in export revenues had the flooding materialised.
Samut Sakhon governor Chulaphat Saengchan assured local businesses this week that the threat of flooding in the provinces industrial zones was over. He said runoff water from the Tha Chin River and other canals had been successfully diverted to non-populated areas, away from where seafood factories are located.
Although the flood crisis in Bangkok and central Thailand has eased, shrimp exporters continue to worry about supply as heavy rains started to fall in southern Thailand.
November and December are monsoon months in the south and the Thai Frozen Foods Association fear that should flooding happen in the south, as they did about this time last year, shrimp supply could fall precipitously and jeopardise shrimp exports.
About 60% of the country's shrimp output comes from shrimp farms in southern Thailand, specifically in the provinces of Krabi, Chumpon, Suratthani, Songkhla and Nakhon si Thammarat.
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White shrimp prices (in Thai baht) at Thailand's main markets | ||||||
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Unit of Measure: Thai Bhat | ||||||
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Shrimp size |
Mahachai seafood market |
Thai frozen foods association |
Bangkok markets | |||
|
Nov 16 |
Nov 23 |
Nov 16 |
Nov 23 |
Nov 16 |
Nov 23 | |
|
40 pcs/kg |
170 |
168 |
173.80 |
176.40 |
220-230 |
220-230 |
|
50 pcs/kg |
158 |
160 |
153.60 |
158.60 |
190-200 |
190-200 |
|
60 pcs/kg |
140 |
148 |
135.70 |
139.80 |
180-190 |
180-190 |
|
70 pcs/kg |
135 |
142 |
130.00 |
133.80 |
170-180 |
170-180 |
|
80 pcs/kg |
130 |
133 |
122.20 |
124.40 |
160-170 |
160-170 |
|
90 pcs/kg |
124 |
128 |
114.00 |
117.90 |
150-160 |
150-160 |
|
100 pcs/kg |
116 |
120 |
105.00 |
110.00 |
140-150 |
140-150 |
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Note: Farm-gate prices are THB10-15 lower than those at Mahachai market. | ||||||
