BANGKOK, Thailand — Undercurrent News is reporting live from the annual Thaifex Anuga Asia food show, held over five days at the IMPACT Muang Thong Thani events hall in Bangkok, Thailand from May 23-28.

Dan Gibson: Undercurrent News

Thai seafood trader Siam Canadian has been enjoying the considerable fruits of its Latin American import operation this year, begun in 2019 but expanded in 2021 with the opening of an office in Ecuador’s shrimp capital Guayaquil.

“We’ve done very well there,” CEO Jim Gulkin told Undercurrent News. “I can’t tellyou the volumes offhand, and it’s still difficult to grow supply after COVID, but we dohave a steady increase, I can say that.”

While the “clear majority” of Siam Canadian’s shrimp is sourced from Asia, having a foot print in Ecuador has been a big help for the company during two years that have seen the country leapfrog India to become the world’s largest shrimp producer.

In contrast, Siam Canadian’s sourced shrimp volumes out of India, Thailand and Vietnam have been relatively flat in the same time period, Gulkin said.

“I would say our volumes have been more or less steady, with the past 10 months being the exception, where business has slowed because of [high US] inventory. But overall, it’ll get back to where it was — it always does.”

The group has also been sourcing higher volumes of Argentine red shrimp from its main Latin American office in Buenos Aires, though this is obviously a more seasonal product, Gulkin said.