Black tiger shrimp prices up by Rs 10 per kg

The prices of black tiger shrimp has increased by Rs 10-15 per kg following a dip in arrivals. With the current black tiger shrimp first crop season coming to an end, only 25-30 count shrimp material is arriving into the market.

Up to the end of July, about 400-500 tonnes of shrimp arrived into the market every day. This has now come down to 100-150 tonnes per day and that too only 25-30 count shrimp is coming into the market.

So, exporters who have orders on hand are paying Rs 10-15 extra on each kg compared to last week prices, U K Viswanadha Raju, president, Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI), Andhra Pradesh region, told Business Standard.

In fact, during 2005-06 season, purchasing prices of shrimp declined drastically as compared to the last season.

During 2004-05 season's first crop time (between May and August), farmers pocketed, on an average, Rs 200 per kg of shrimp, whereas during this season, shrimp exporters paid, on an average, only Rs 160 per kg.

Moreover, during the current season production too did not improve as expected by the industry due to early harvest.

Fearing further fall in prices, many aqua farmers in the state harvested their shrimp ponds prematurely. Besides, they also put more shrimp seed in the ponds to get higher production, Raju Said.

"Exports to the United States, Japan and the European Union countries have been reduced drastically. Exporter are besieged by problems and it would take 4-6 six months time to realise money from the US importers. Currently, China, Thailand and Vietnam are dumping huge quantities of black tiger shrimp into the US and Japan markets at cheaper prices. In addition to this, export orders too have declined. Owing to all these, the state seafood exporters have not been able to pay good prices to the farmers," he said.

This season, the industry anticipated about 3 tonnes of yield on each hectare of pond as compared to earlier production of 1.5 to 2 tonnes.

"If farmers had harvested up to the end of July, production levels could have reached as expected but a majority of farmers harvested early anticipating further dip in prices. As a result shrimps were smaller in size and weighed less. And farmers lost on both counts "� quantity and price," Raju said.