ProExpo targeting top US restaurants with FreeBay head-on shrimp offering

Guayaquil, Ecuador-based ProExpo has announced its official entry into the U.S., expecting to sell 15 containers per month of its recently launched FreeBay brand of premium, antibiotic-free, head-on, shell-on frozen shrimp to the competitive Western market over the next year.

FreeBay International Key Account Manager Sharon Carpio told SeafoodSource that this move was partially due to the inconsistency of the Asian markets where the company typically sells its products – particularly China.

The Ecuadorian firm sells 25,000 metric tons (MT) annually of white vannamei shrimp worldwide, 60 percent of which goes to China, 25 percent to Europe, and the remaining 15 percent to a number of other destinations, Carpio said. In the past few years, though, the Chinese market has become “unpredictable."

Some Ecuadorian shrimp farmers have recognized an overdependence on the Asian market, after being hit by increased production prices coupled with a global supply glut of shrimp that has resulted in slack demand and lower prices paid to producers.

“ProExpo has performed so well in other markets, including China, that we were admittedly slightly late to realize the market would decline. That said, ProExpo outperformed competitors in China during the Covid pandemic. We continued to sell without interruption to China during that time when our competitors were not allowed to,” Carpio said. “In terms of the U.S., our expansion into the market has been both fast and strategic, with market research getting underway in the fall of 2022 and, now, in July, a product ready for purchase.”

Considering ProExpo was previously selling about five containers a year of shrimp to the U.S. – “next to nothing,” according to Carpio – the North American market represents a significant growth opportunity for the company, she said. As one of its first steps in its strategic plan …

Photo courtesy of FreeBay