The Hindu Business Line : Dollar fluctuations eat into Indian shrimp exports

Kochi, May 29 The rapid changes in the value of the dollar against the Indian currency have been negatively affecting Indian shrimp exports. According to representatives of the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI), Indian exports of shrimp had been seriously hit by the appreciating value of the rupee and exports have slumped by approximately 20 per cent in rupee value.

The shrimp industry has also been affected by the sharp spike in oil prices, the anti-dumping measures applied by the US and the increasing competition by other producing countries in the region that harvests vannamei shrimp with lower production costs, unlike the Indian black tiger shrimp with its inherently higher production costs, the SEAI pointed out.

This bad news comes at a time when the US, one of India’s major traditional shrimp export destination, has declared that global shrimp imports into that country have fallen for the first time in the last 10 years.

US imports down

After 10 years of steady growth, shrimp imports into the US markets have fallen by 5.7 per cent in volume and 5.1 per cent in value during 2007. However, with the exclusion of countries such as India and Brazil which have been beset with anti-dumping duties, the six major exporters to the US — Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mexico, Ecuador and China — have further consolidated their position in the US markets and accounted for 78 per cent in volume of US imports.

Though handicapped by anti-dumping duties, India remained the seventh largest shrimp exporter to the US although its volume fell by 24 per cent in 2007.

The decline in imports is also reflected in a decrease in per capita consumption of shrimp by the US population. Shrimp landings in the US are estimated to have fallen by almost 45 per cent.

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