The latest Indian government figures show total shrimp production and exports for the 2022-23 fiscal year (April 2022-March 2023) at 719,357 tonnes, down from 734,375 tonnes in 2021-22.
Among them, the export volume of raw shrimp was 560,778 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 4%; the export volume of value-added shrimp production was 67,232 tons, a year-on-year increase of 10%; the export volume of black tiger shrimp was 25,750 tons, a substantial increase of 90% year-on-year.
Some insiders believe that India's export volume in the 2022-2023 fiscal year will be much lower than the actual situation. India will harvest a large amount of raw shrimp in the fourth quarter of 2022 as many farmers harvest before the price collapses. In the first quarter of 2023, Indian shrimp exports reached 131,766 tons, a year-on-year increase of 16%, and the average price fell to $6.53/kg. In March this year, the average price of Indian value-added shrimp products was $9.15/kg, and the price of black tiger shrimp was $9.18/kg. Sales in the US market continued to decline, while sales in China and other Asian markets increased.
By April this year, the export volume of Indian shrimp had dropped significantly, from 45,741 tons in the same period last year to 40,248 tons, and the sales of value-added products also shrank year-on-year. The decline in the export of shrimp products is linearly related to the reduction in the import of seed shrimp. From December 2022 to May 2023, the number of imported seed shrimp in India has decreased by 33% year-on-year. Shrimp Insignts believes that the lowest point of export prices just happened in the off-season of production, which means that the upward adjustment trend of the market is coming.
At the same time, India's black tiger shrimp exports continued to grow in April, with cumulative exports reaching 8,511 tons in the first four months of this year, much higher than the 3,200 tons in 2022 and 1,515 tons in 2021. These data show that more and more Indian farmers have begun to switch to raising black tiger shrimp, and the supply of Indian black tiger shrimp seedlings is also growing rapidly.