Weak rupee boosts Q1 shrimp exports to US

India’s shrimp export to the United States for the January-March quarter have registered a 15.27 per cent increase to 24,188 tonnes over corresponding period last year’s 20,983 tonnes, aided by a weak rupee.

India faces stiff competition from other major exporters such as Indonesia and Ecuador in the American market. Indonesia, which has been aggressive with its shipments, topped the charts as the largest supplier to the US for the March quarter with exports of 27,979 tonnes, up 16 per cent over corresponding period last year. Shipments from Ecuador to the US were up 4.62 per cent at 23,414 tonnes for the March quarter, placing the South American nation in the third slot for Q1, behind Indonesia and India, according to the US trade data.

In fact, for the month of March, India was relegated to the third slot in the US market as Indonesia and Ecuador exported more shrimps. Indonesia dominated the American shrimp market with 9,618 tonnes, followed by Ecuador at 8,951 tonnes and India with 8,629 tonnes during March. The Indonesian government has announced its goal to increase seafood exports by 300 per cent by 2019.

Sources indicated that the devaluation of the Indian rupee had helped push shrimp exports to the US last year. “One hundred rupees was around $1.60 last year. Today, it is around $1.56. The devaluation had made seafood exports attractive,” said a seafood products exporter, requesting anonymity.

Indian exporters shipped 99,566 tonnes of shrimp to the US, worth $1,269 million, between January and November 2014. Though this was lower than the exports in the same period of 2013, when 85,799 tonnes of shrimp was exported, the official pointed out that it had helped place India as the leading shrimp exporter to the US. Indonesia was in the second place during the same 11 months with 94,524 tonnes, whereas Ecuador exported 85,184 tonnes to the US and was ranked third.

Interestingly, in a message to its subscribers, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers has asked its shrimp exporters to lower prices or stand to lose the US market to India and Indonesia.

Stating that the price of shrimp shipped to the US averaged $13 per kilo in 2014, a 15-year high, the Association has said that the lower prices offered by both India and Indonesia would destabilise exports from Vietnam.

India offers shrimp at $11 a kg, said the official, adding that though shrimp prices in general were firm during the third quarter of 2014, they were lower than the extremely high rates recorded in 2013. Export prices also slid during the October-December 2014 period, he added.

Vietnam’s sales to the US market slid 47.55 per cent year-on-year to 3,194 tonnes. For the first quarter, Vietnam exported 12,264 tonnes to the US, down by 23.72 per cent.