Tom Seaman : UnderCurrent News

After a tough 2023, Siam Canadian Group’s Jim Gulkin is seeing the US shrimp market slowly return to buying.

As has been widely reported, 2023 was a terrible year in the US shrimp sector, as large inventories that had built up during the COVID pandemic met reduced demand as retail spending slowed. Retail demand was hit by travel starting up again and foodservice re-opening post-pandemic, but the stocks had already been accumulated.

“It seems the end of the inventory has been reached in many quarters. The stockpile has largely been cleared,” said Gulkin, whose Siam Canadian has offices across Asia and in Latin America. 

In 2023, Siam Canadian “remained profitable,” but sales were down, he told Undercurrent News.

So far in 2024, “we’ve had a good start to the year,” said Gulkin. “There are increased retail sales, increased foodservice sales.”

Gulkin hopes for a sold year of sales ahead, as customers reorder to replenish inventories at lower prices and demand grows.

In addition, Gulkin said he does not see the duty situation in the US as a big factor in the overall market.

The preliminary countervailing duty (CVD) rates for Ecuador, India and Vietnam are also not “onerous,” with Indonesia getting nothing.

Ecuador’s CVD “looked bad,” but has then been adjusted down, as previously reported by Undercurrent. “On CVD, Ecuador at the outset looked bad, but now it’s reasonable.”

So, the CVD rates “are not going to be a factor,” he said.

The upcoming anti-dumping rates on Ecuador and Indonesia are one to watch, however, as the US shrimp sector is asking for up to 118%.

Even these won’t be a big deal for the market as a whole, said Gulkin.

“We’re waiting for the anti-dumping duties from Indonesia and Ecuador to see where they land. If they land high, that means that other countries will ship more, and if they land low, then things will remain the same. Yeah. But it’s not going to affect the markets much,” he told Undercurrent.