One continued theme from the Global Seafood Market Conference, held annually in January in the US and organized by the National Fisheries Institute, was the resiliency of the US consumer and how their changing tastes drive the seafood trade. 

In the shrimp market, this is seen in the growth of value-added products, which add a convenience for time-strapped buyers. 

Looking at trade data from Undercurrent News trade portal, the growth of peeled shrimp supports the notion that this trend. 

A good measure would be the year prior to the pandemic until last year. While this encompasses some volatility, from 2019 to 2023, total import volume grew 21% to 821.5 million pounds (nearly 373,000 metric tons) or a 4% compounded annual growth rate over the five-year period, as illustrated by the UCN trade portal chart below. 

The inventory glut

The industry was left with a glut of inventory coming out of the record import volume year of 2021. The US imported 922.7m lbs of peeled shrimp that year. 

While consumers were looking to rebalance eating at home and away during the reopening, there was heavy buying activity from both retail and foodservice. Retail outlets operated as if they were going to continue the trajectory they were on in terms of filling the needs of the customers and only had to look at the preceding years sales volume to justify continued heavy purchasing. Restaurants were looking at pre-pandemic numbers and felt the same. 

This led to a nearly two-year decline in pricing from April 2022 to March 2024. Since the trough, however, prices have rallied in spite of the continued increase in supply. When prices move up with greater supply, it shows the high level of demand for the product. Prices moved $0.40/lb higher from March 2024 to November 2024.

The elephant in the room

What has really changed, however, is the volume coming from our trade partners. Ecuador is responding to the willingness of the US consumer with more value-added products. 

The share of the market imported from Ecuador has grown from 10% to 21%, coming at the expense of India and Indonesia. The CAGR of 21% significantly outpaced the overall rate. Cumulatively in the same 5-year period, volume grew 160%. 

The industry will continue to watch this trend as Gabriel Luna, an Ecuadorian shrimp farmer and panelist at GSMC suggested that the Latin country will remain focused on working with the United States and increase all value-added product by investing in infrastructure and business relationships to that end. 

US wholesale prices

This demand has led to higher US wholesale prices as well. While the higher trend is evident in all sizes, the 26-30 count P&D, tail-on, Latin origin averaged $4.50/lb in week 4 (Jan. 20-26) 2025, up from $4.30/lb in week 1.