After having interrupted sales abroad for several months, shrimp producers in Rio Grande do Norte resumed crustacean shipments to the European market, the main consumer of their products. The first containers with shrimp sailed from ports in the northeast of the country towards Europe a few days ago.
According to the Association of Shrimp Breeders from Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande is expected to export half of its production in the next 12 months.
It is estimated that during 2013 the area will produce about 14,000 tonnes of shrimp, Tribuna do Norte reported. The Association data indicate that the state exported 95 per cent of all the shrimp produced, but in 2012 all local production was sold on the domestic market.
The president of the Brazilian Association of Shrimp Breeders (ABCC), Itamar Rocha, explained that the current conditions are more favorable to exports: the dollar rose again and the world shrimp supply fell.
The decline in shrimp production in China, Thailand and Vietnam -- impaired by the early mortality syndrome -- has opened the way to producers from Rio Grande, who expect to expand the volume of exports by 50 per cent in the next 12 months.
Sérgio Lima, CEO of Potiporã Aquicultura (a company belonging to Queiroz Galvão Group) expects a leap in production.
"In 2012, we produced 3,000 tonnes. This year, we must produce about 6,500 tonnes. The idea is to further increase the volume in the next 12 months, exceeding 7,000 tonnes," stated the executive.
"We have already received orders from China and Russia. Before we exported only to Europe," he added.
This year, the company expects to export about 90 tonnes of shrimp, and a good part of the shipment would go to France.
"We are taking this opportunity. We had not planned that," the entrepreneur continued explaining.
Other firms from Rio Grande are also taking advantage of this new environment, such as, Trêsm.
In this regard, Orígenes Monte, director of the firm and president of the Associations of Shrimp Breeders from Rio Grande do Norte and advisor to the Brazilian Association said BRL 1 million (USD 416,000) is being invested in the construction of more nurseries to hold the shrimp larvae.
The entrepreneur expects to increase its production, which had initially been designed at 420 tonnes annually, by nearly 50 per cent,
"All what has been produced this month was purchased by the southern and the southeastern states. Exports will begin in September," he revealed.
The coordinator of Commerce and Services of Rio Grande, Otomar Lopes Cardoso, estimates about 2,000 direct jobs will be created thanks to the revival of exports of shrimp, Globo.com reported.