Ecuador’s monthly shrimp exports surged above 100,000 tons in July 2022, the first time the country has breached six figures.
According to Ecuador’s National Aquaculture Association (CNA), Ecuador exported 103,305 tons of shrimp in July, setting an export record for the third consecutive month and up 8 percent from June. Compared with June, the value of exports rose 9 percent to $654 million.
Ecuador set a record for the third straight month after shipments picked up in its biggest market, China. Exports to China rose 72% year-on-year to 55,000 tons in July, up from a monthly record of 53,000 tons set in May 2020. In value terms, exports to China rose 78 percent to $341 million compared with July last year.
Meanwhile, exports to the US rose 19% year-on-year to 19,000 tons. Exports to Europe fell 10% year-on-year to 18,000 tons due to lower exports to France.
In terms of export prices, the average unit price of Ecuadorian vananmei shrimp was US$6.33/kg in July, up 2% from July last year and US$0.03/kg from June.
Exports for the first seven months of 2022 rose to 614,000 tons, up 34% year-on-year, thanks to record shrimp sales in July. The total value of exports rose 56% to 3.94 billion yuan.
As previously predicted by Robins McIntosh, vice president of Charoen Pokphand Foods in Thailand, Ecuador “will dominate the shrimp world”. Ecuador is on track to further increase production to 1.5 million tons in the next six years after producing more than 1 million tons of farmed vannamei shrimp in 2021, he said. The country could produce as much as 2.5 million tons of shrimp by 2027, a figure close to the current total global imports of farmed crustaceans.
