“Market correction seems to be underway” in India’s shrimp sector

India’s shrimp exports have dropped below 2022 levels, and there are signs of a smaller first crop this year, signaling trouble for the powerhouse commodity of the country’s seafood industry.

“A market correction seems to be underway,” Willem van der Pijl, the founder of consultancy Shrimp Insights, wrote in a recent blog post.

A large crop harvested in Q4 2022, combined with lower global demand, has resulted in a crash in prices, according to van der Pijl.

“Some may have expected that India’s financial year export volume in 2022–2023 would have been much lower than it was. The less dramatic figures resulted from the large volume of raw material harvested in Q4 2022, when farmers had already stocked their ponds before prices collapsed,” he wrote. “The export volume in Q1 2023 reached 131,766 MT, up 16 percent compared to 2022. While the volume was up, prices spiraled down.”

Average export prices dropped to …

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