The shrimp market last month is highly active. Due to the supply issue of Indian, all the vannamei price starts to increase. Ecuador. Indonesia, Vietnam all get more orders. But does that mean that India will lose its market share? Ecuador says! Maybe! India says! We are finding ways back!
The price of Ecuador had a sharp decrease at the end of 2020 due to the weak purchase from china, but then Ecuador switched the market strategy and turned to explore more markets in the EU, and it worked so well. The Ecuador vannamei price started to recover soon.
The outbreak of the pandemic in India gave Ecuador a big chance to expand its market. The India vannamei supply chain was affected by the early harvest at the beginning of May, making the big size in a shortage. The USA and EU are the big markets of big size vannamei, especially 20/30, 30/40. Since this season, India has had some early harvest, and the big size quantity is limited. The demand turned to Ecuador. The price of Ecuador is increasing so fast, and it has already been the highest in the last two years.
The gate price of Ecuador price increased by 0.1-0.15$ per kg for the raw material in a week. With this significant influence, the farmers have already expanded the seedling plan for the next season.
For the EU market, the demand is so huge, and they are looking for reliable suppliers. If India can’t figure out the whole issue of the pandemic, maybe they will lose the race in the Christmas and Summer purchases. EU has a very high standard for the vannamei shrimp.
Then for Indonesia. The US is the leading market for Indonesia. Since India’s short supply, Indonesia also expanded its market share in the US, increasing its price. (Mainly in the big size). Indonesia seems to benefit a lot in this condition, but the freight cost in Asia makes Indonesia’s vannamei price very hard. First, the containers are less, and the freight cost is at a very high level; the cost is almost as same as from China, around $15,000 – $17,000 per container to the US.
Like most Asia countries, Vietnam also has the issue of high freight costs. Vietnam imported many Indian vannamei and did reprocess, and they export many to the US market. But then the high freight cost may weaken their competitive strength over the vannamei market.
Except for the US and the EU, China is one of the biggest markets for vannamei. Recently, there is a notice that China will ban the import of frozen seafood from 11 countries in Zhanjiang port from June 15th to July 20th. Including India, Vietnam, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Mongolia(Zhanjiang Port is one of the biggest ports for vannamei importing in China). This information means that the seafood demand, especially the vannamei demands, may run to Ecuador, Iran, Peru, and other countries. Compared to the vannamei product volume capacity, Ecuador seems the winner of the race in China for the summer purchase.
For India vannamei, there are too many issues to figure out: the logistics, the processing, and the production. The advantage for India vannamei now that they have many small and middle-size for HOSO and HLSO. For the logistic issue, it’s a worldwide issue, and it will last for a long time even into the fourth quarter. India just needs to figure out the local transportation from the plant to the factory to the port. Then for the HOSO and HLSO, maybe India can find some more market share in HLSO. Indonesia can be a good market for the HOSO and reprocess to export to other countries. China is ready to start the summer purchase; after the notice is over on July 20th, there must be a massive demand for the vannamei import (Ecaduor’s price keeps increasing and many importers in China choose to wait and see)
Ecuador will profit a lot, and there is no reason for price decreasing. So let’s see who will win the Q2.
