Volumes are up, but Indian packers are still struggling to meet strong demand.India’s shrimp output for 2011 is expected to close up 2010 by as much as 30 percent, executive in India told Intrafish.
The level of output of head-on shrimp form India will be between 250,000 metric tons and 300,000 metric tons for 2011, said Sree Atluri, a U.S.-based executive with India-based Devi Seafoods.
Sixty percent of this will be vannamei and 40 percent black tiger, he told IntraFish.
“This year there has been increase of almost 25 percent to 30 percent in shrimp harvest as compared to last year, however due to unexpectedly high demand from all importers across the globe, price have largely been firm,” said Dinesh Sood, the general manager of the Indian office of Siam Canadian Foods.
“Indian companies have ramped up production of vannamei this year.
For 2010, the breakdown was more like 80 percent black tiger and 20 percent vannamei, said Atluri.
The production levels for 2012 are likely to be similar, “as there won’t be so much new areas available for expansion from the main production areas on the east coast of India,” he said. “The only exception would be large new areas that would come up on the west coast of India, but the probability of this low.”
In Coastal Andhra, a region on India’s east coast, as much as 70 percent of harvest is vannamei as compared to black tiger, said Sood.
Prices for raw material are being driven up by reduced landings of both black tiger and vannamei in Coastal Andhra, he told IntraFish.
The abolition of the export incentives of between 9 percent and 12 percent by the Indian government on seafood products is “another factor” pushing prices up for seafood, he said.
”Packers still have many pending contracts to be fulfilled for black tiger and raw material scarcity is delaying contracts,” he said.
In terms of sizes, Indian shrimp are generally not harvested in smaller sizes, he said. “The existing range of sizes for black tiger in head-less, shell-on (HLSO) form is mainly in the range of 8/12, 13/15, 16/20, with lower volumes of 21/25 and 26/30 per pound. For vannamei, sizes will be 13/15, 16/20 and 21/25.”
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