Big sized white leg shrimps are consumed slowly

The coronavirus pandemic has driven a decrease in both supply and demand in white leg shrimp material in Cà Mau; meanwhile small sized shrimps are consumed quite well.  

The unrecovered market resulted in a slump in prices of big sized white leg shrimp material, according to the Sub-department of Sóc Trăng Fisheries. Some processing and exporting companies purchased shrimp size 20 pcs/kg (type A1) at 187,000 dong/kg and type A5 at 174,000 dong/kg, down 2,000 dong/kg compared to late June and down 1,000 dong/kg compared to the same period last year.

Prices of shrimp size 50-80 pcs/kg ranged between 92,000 – 106,000 dong/kg and 109,000 – 122,000 dong/kg, down 2,000 dong/kg on average from late June 2020 and down 7,000 – 11,000 or 15,000 dong/kg compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, small shrimps size 90-100 or 130 pcs/kg are sold at 75,000 – 89,000 dong/kg and 86,000 – 100,000 dong/kg, down 1,000 or 4,000 or 7,000 dong/kg compared to the same period last year.

Some seafood exporting companies in Cà Mau have insights that another surge of coronavirus pandemic hit countries such as the US, Australia and some European countries right after they decided to reopen the economy, making restaurants and hotels remain closed. These are the destinations of high value and big sized shrimps. Beside this, even though sales in supermarkets are attractive , consumers lean towards fair priced food and small sized shrimps due to income reduction.

Supply of Vietnamese shrimps will not grow but there will be a large amount of India’s shrimps by the end of this year. Prices of shrimps size 40 pcs/kg and smaller ones will not fall and may slightly increase.