Raw shrimp shortage becomes more serious

Shrimp exporters face hardship

Raw shrimp shortfall becomes more and more serious, pushing up its price and creating bad effect on seafood exporters and processors. This was attributable to lower production caused by EMS and foreign dealers scramble for shrimp in Vietnam. Besides, farmers don’t sell raw shrimp with hope that the price continues to go up.

Tra Vinh province has shrimp farming area of 26,000 hectares with 27,000 household farmers. 28 percent of total shrimp seed that was stocked was hit by disease.

Since the early 2013, local processors have fiercely competed in collecting raw shrimp in the province. High raw shrimp sales fetched good profit for local farmers however, shrimp processing plants in Tra Vinh province 'hunger' raw material.

Although the processors must pay higher price (1.5 times higher) to buy raw material, the supply for their processing plants was insufficient. As a result, through August 2013, some companies only reached 53 percent of their plan on shrimp exports.

In Ca Mau province, farmers stocked 267,000 hectares and harvested over 100,000 MT of shrimp, completing 78 percent of yearly plan through September. The price of black tiger shrimp now increases to VND240,000 per kilogram from VND170,000 per kilogram in 2012. The current shrimp price increases by 40 percent from that of two months ago.

The provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development recommended that farmers shouldn’t keep raw shrimp to earn more profit. This can cause risks for them because contracts are nearly doned.

Through September 2013, shrimp exports reached over US$2 billion in which whiteleg shrimp sales abroad were US$952 million, up 80 percent and exports of black tiger shrimp reached US$928 million, up 2.1 percent from that of the compatible time last year.