U.S. shrimp imports dropped 12 percent year over year in July 2024.
July’s U.S. shrimp import total sunk to 134.4 million pounds, or 60,981 metric tons (MT), down from 152.9 million pounds (69,356 MT) in July 2023 and 117.2 million pounds (53,179 MT) in June 2024.
For the first seven months of the year, import totals are down 41.8 million pounds (18,963 MT) compared to 2023. Imports between January and July 2024 totaled 905.7 million pounds (410,821 MT), compared to 947.5 million pounds (429,784 MT) in the same time period of 2023, a drop of more than 4 percent.
Although India remained the nation’s top importer, the country saw its exports to the U.S. only increase by less than 1 percent year over year in July, hitting 58.9 million pounds (26,729 MT), up from 58.7 million pounds (26,641 MT) in July 2023.
Ecuador’s U.S. exports dropped 30 percent in July to 28.4 million pounds (12,913 MT) from 40.9 million pounds (18,573 MT) in July 2023.
Indonesia saw a nearly 11 percent decline in its exports year over year to 22.7 million pounds (10,303 MT) in July 2024 from 25.1 million pounds (11,404 MT) in July 2023.
Other leading shrimp-exporting nations also saw declines in their U.S. shipments. Vietnam’s U.S. exports fell by almost 16 percent, to 12.6 million pounds (5,704 MT) in July 2024 from 14.9 million pounds (6,767 MT) in July 2023. Thailand’s exports dropped from 5.5 million pounds (2,479 MT) in July 2023 to 4.8 million pounds (2,194 MT) in July 2024. Argentina saw a slight decline in exports to the U.S. in July, from 2.4 million pounds (1,088 MT) to 2.36 pounds (1,071 MT) in July 2023.
No other nation had more than 1,000 MT of exports to the U.S. in July.
According to the Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refused four entry lines of shrimp for banned antibiotics in August and reported an additional nine entry line refusals from the previous month. Two of the seven previous refusals were attributed to veterinary drug residue.
Since the beginning of the year, the FDA has refused 60 entry lines for the presence of such residue. As the Southern Shrimp Alliance has reported, this means that refusals for banned antibiotics have already equaled or exceeded the total refusals in five of the last seven years.
Two Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP)-certified shrimp processors in India were among companies that were refused lines: Kerala-based Penver Products Limited and Andra Pradesh-based Kalyan Aqua & Marine Exports India.
Though both producers operate under 4-star BAP certification, Penver had three entry lines refused on 5 August for veterinary drug contamination and misbranding, and Kalyan had two entry lines refused for nitrofuran contamination and one entry line refused for veterinary drug residue and nitrofurans. Both firms were also cited in the FDA’s 5 July entry line refusals for drug residue contamination.
The FDA also reported refusing 12 entry lines from three Indonesian shrimp exporters for short-weighting issues in August, including Bumi Pangan Utama PT, which had eight lines refused for “added bulk.” Additionally, Indonesian exporter Mega Marine Pride had two lines refused for added bulk, while P.T. First Marine Seafoods had one line refused for added bulk on 1 August and another refused on 26 August. All of the Indonesian producers were 4-star BAP-certified, according to the Southern Shrimp Alliance.
The SSA has been critical of BAP in the past and runs a “Check Your Suppliers” webpage where importers can search databases of antibiotic-contaminated shrimp, as well as shrimp produced with forced labor.
