BANGKOK: Thai producers plan to increase their shrimp output in the second half of this year, after output from farms dropped year-on-year in the first two quarters of 2017, industry sources told press.
Heavy rain, which has caused floods in several provinces, as well as ongoing disease issues, limited the growth of Thai shrimp production in the first half of this year, Thai Union Group’s shrimp unit managing director, Preerasak Boonmechote, told Undercurrent during a recent visit to the firm’s processing plant near Bangkok, before the Thaifex trade show in Bangkok.
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Thai shrimp production is expected to grow 5% overall this year, lower than earlier expectations of 10-15% output growth, Boonmechote said, pointing to the fact that heavy rain had limited the country’s production growth plan.
In 2016, Thailand’s production increased around 50,000 metric tons to 300,000t, Robins McIntosh, senior vice president of Thai agribusiness and food processing giant Charoen Pokphand Foods, said in January, at the Global Seafood Market Conference in San Francisco, California. According to Thai Union’s estimates, Thai production in 2016 totaled slightly less, about 250,000t.
Meanwhile, Thai shrimp prices, which are on the rise again (see below, from the Undercurrent prices portal), are expected to either remain stable or grow 5% y-o-y in 2017, according to Boonmechote.
