Shrimp exports to hit US$3.1 billion this year

Major export markets saw a quite high growth (except Japan down 4.2%) like China (up 30.3%), the US (up 15.2%), the EU (up 6.9%) and the Republic of Korea (up 12.3%). Meanwhile, exports to small markets dropped by 0.5-27.6%.

Through September, shrimp consumption was more favourable than previously thanks to high demands from the US and EU markets in the context of global supply decline.

Demands for shrimp, especially tiger prawn on the US and China markets are jumping high while tiger prawn outputs of major suppliers like India, Bangladesh and Indonesia may dip due to white spot disease on shrimp caused by climate change.

Many households in the Mekong Delta region shifted from raising tiger prawn to whiteleg shrimp as its requires as short breeding time, achieves high productivity and enjoys stable prices. In the first nine months of this year, whiteleg shrimp breeding areas reached 80,000ha (up 6.3%) and its output is estimated at 200,000 tons (up 4.2%) while tiger prawn was farmed on only 594,000 ha (up 0.5%) with an output of 160,000 tons (up 0.6%).