magazine for sustainable sourcing and market intelligence06 kamusta? Hon Sophia Balod52 north-western europe market update67 india sourcing updatethe seafood stewardship index holding companies accountable14-PAGE#6 June 2019us specialbiggest market of shrimp-lovers? Powered by©2019 Stichting Seafood Trade Intelligence Portal (STIP). ShrimpTails is an STIP (www.seafood-tip.com) publication and has four issues per year.25th June 2019disclaimerLimitation of liability: STIP is not responsible for any errors in or accuracy and availability of the infor-mation provided through ShrimpTails magazine or its Platform. The information provided through ShrimpTails magazine or its Platform is for informational purposes only and not intended to serve as the sole source of information for User to make a business, trading or investment decision. In the event a User and/or its organization or employer makes a business, trading and/or investment decision based on the information provided through ShrimpTails magazine and its Platform, this is the sole responsi-bility of the User and/or its organization or employer. STIP is not liable for damages of any kind, whether direct or indirect, arising out or related to the use of ShrimpTails magazine and its Platform, except to the extent the liability arises from the gross negligence or wilful misconduct of STIP. In no event shall the liability of STIP exceed the fees paid in the twelve months preceding the event causing damages.Editor-in-Chief Willem van der Pijl / STIP (NL)Editorial Assistant Sander Visch / STIP (NL) Editors Annette van Tits, Josanne Blokker, Jo Hamilton-Bilijam & Ursula Beer / Editors Collective Amsterdam (NL)Contributors Jasmijn Venneman / STIP (NL), Adeyemi Ademiluyi / STIP (NL), Colin Ulbert / STIP (NL), Leo Voetman / STIP (NL), Sophia Balod / STIP (NL), Alban Caratis / Fresh Studio (VN), Andres Fajardo (EC), John van Herwijnen / Open Europe (ES), Moin Uddin Ahmed / Solidaridad (BD), Liris Maduningtyas / Jala (ID), Mazhab Uddin / Consultant (BD), Aquaconnect (IN), Bas Bilijam (NL), Ursula Beer (NL) & Annette van Tits (NL)Graphic & Illustrative design Marnix de Klerk & Nina Mathijsen / Detour (NL)Website support Mathijs van de Venne / Tenpitch (NL)Support Bram Verkerke / Solidaridad (NL)Advertising and sales Jasmijn Venneman / STIP jasmijn@seafood-tip.com t +31 6 40 81 33 61 silver membersgold membersShrimpTails and Seafood Trade Intelligence Portal are powered by Solidaridad Network. 12contents05 editorial 48 southern europe60 maximizing impact partnering with Seafood Watch to realize sustainability goals06 kamusta?a simple question goes a long way08 introduction to sourcing updates56 spotlight onRichard Stavis18 the artemia paradoxvital resource or bottleneck?50 goal 2019stay ahead of the curve26 obtaining international market recognitionfor small-scale farmers40 the seafood stewardship indexholding companies accountable 32 betting on the tortoise54 us special 63 chem-free shrimpa trend in the US?68 asc and fair trade usa®unite for sustainable aquaculturein Indonesia46 introduction to market updates16 vietnam52 north-western europe66 united states24 india38 bangladesh30 indonesia12 ecuador14 a purchase guideto the Ecuadorian shrimp industrycolumnsourcing updatesmarket updatesin-depth tailsadvertorialinterviewsmonterey bay aquariumwalton family foundation04shrimptails | editorial 05shrimptails | editorialAmericans love shrimp. Especially Bubba Blue, Forrest Gump’s memora-ble, shrimp-devoted best friend during his Vietnam War days. “You can BBQ it, boil it, broil it, bake it, sauté it. There’s shrimp kebabs, shrimp cre-ole, shrimp gumbo, pan-fried, deep-fried, stir-fried … pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp.” So many options, and also so many developments in the shrimp industry, particularly also in the US. This edition of ShrimpTails is a US market special, providing insight into a trend for non-treated products, delving into the history of a 95-year-old US-based seafood distributor and describing how Monterey Bay Aquarium partners with market players to accelerate the drive for sustainable seafood in the marketplace. Furthermore, we have spoken with one of the brains behind the much-awaited Seafood Stewardship Index to explore its potential impact on the industry. In terms of the market, the first half of 2019 has been quiet. Market de-mand from the EU and the US has been lower than people had expected. Normally, demand would rise after Easter, but this year many importers still held stocks at that time. Although buying for programme business continued, buying for the wholesale market slowed down considerably. Buyers who did import new containers did so at a low price. Farmers in India anticipated this slow market and reduced their stocking according-ly, and so far it seems that exporters there have been able to stabilize farm gate prices at a much higher level than last year. In Vietnam, however, the majority of farmers stocked their ponds and, with harvests in full swing, prices are plummeting – they’re fast heading for the low levels of 2018, and may well even go below these. Hence, exporters have had to lower farm gate prices. The same is happening in Ecuador: while the country is breaking significant production records again and may even counteract India’s reduced output, these records come at a cost and average prices for Ecuadorian shrimp continue to decline. Looking ahead, we are confi-dent that demand from the EU and the US will pick up in August and Sep-tember when importers will start preparing for Christmas and New Year. As Forrest said, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” And the same goes for the shrimp industry. Together with our new deputy-editor-in-chief, Hon Sophia Balod, we are commit-ted to finding out what exactly is going on in the various sectors of the industry. Sophia’s approach is to ask the simple but sincere question of kamusta? How are we all doing and where are we headed? Keep reading and find out!Willem van der PijlDirector Seafood Trade Intelligence Portaleditorial 06shrimptails | kamusta?kamusta? a simple question goes a long wayhon sophia Balod, the new deputy-editor-in-chief at ShrimpTailS, shares her story, giving us an insight into ShrimpTailS’ mission and future.excellent reportingI bring my work experience to ShrimpTails, where we aim for excellent reporting. In order to achieve this, one must not only get the information from the ground, but also step back to see the bigger picture and bring in opinions and analyses of different stakeholders in the industry.How exactly do we do that?I start by asking the simple ques-tion of Kamusta? The answer to this question goes a long way and leads to the core of ShrimpTails’ mission: to become an in-depth source of in-formation about sustainable sourc-ing and market intelligence. We do this by showing sincere concern for how various sectors involved in the industry are doing. How are the Kamusta? is how we greet each other where I come from: a tiny archipelago called the Philippines, sprawling with thousands of islands in the Pacific, teeming with the abundance of agriculture and, of course, seafood. Kamusta? means “How are you?”, and this is how I would like to start off my first ever opening letter for ShrimpTails.As the new deputy-editor-in-chief at ShrimpTails, I am bringing almost 10 years of journalistic experience from local and international media to the magazine – from weaving meaningful stories and analysing data, to engaging the audience to better understand the complexities of the industry.hopping from island to islandMy passion for seafood started when I was working as a local journalist in the Philippines. I was assigned to write special reports on the fishing sector, hopping from island to island to cover some of the fishermen’s plight – such as typhoons destroying their boats and affecting their catches; or the growth of certain invasive fish spe-cies (called arwana or knife fish) in a local lake in the province of Rizal. I have also reported on the various livelihoods originating from the fishing industry in General San-tos City, “Tuna Capital of the Philippines”.Most recently, I worked as a journalist and editor at Atuna, a news website based in the Netherlands that cov-ers particularly the tuna species. I worked closely with a team of writ-ers in delivering the latest news on trade, sustainability, global tuna prices and market developments. Atuna just recently mounted the European Tuna Conference in Brussels, Belgium, which focused on accountability and transparency in the global tuna sector.As A locAl journAlist in thE PhiliPPinEs, i wAs AssiGnEd to writE sPEciAl rEPorts on thE fishinG sEctor, hoPPinG from islAnd to islAnd”Our editorial team at ShrimpTails aims to investigate the answer to these How’s, and, more important-ly, address two more crucial ques-tions: Why? and So What? By dig- tging deeper into these stories, we hope ShrimpTails can provide you with more exploratory and investigative pieces that address the impact of these events on the business and production of shrimp more thoroughly.We will also be equally busy with reporting on market trends in the seafood industry for the Seafood Trade Intelligence Portal (STIP). Our team will do their best to tell the story behind these numbers, and explain, in the most interest-ing way possible, how these trends affect the industry. It is our aim to make the interesting relevant, and the relevant inter-esting for our readers.In doing so, we hope to encourage informed decisions regarding the market as well as the future of shrimp sustainability.visual storytellingComing from a television back-ground, I hope to bring my dy-namic experience with visual storytelling into ShrimpTails. It is no question that moving images can be a powerful tool to portray a story, evoke emotions or explain a complicated topic. It is a mine that I hope to tap together with the team. In future issues, we plan on bringing you in-teractive video interviews with ex-perts, scientists or farmers, which can help put a face to their stories and, hopefully, raise more interest for the topic of sustainability.ShrimpTails will offer you short videos via its social media chan-nels and website that will not only stir up your interest but also enhance our stories.I find it quite apt and fitting that my first article in ShrimpTails is a story about my humble beginnings as an editor. This letter is a way to document not only my profession-al growth at STIP, but also my per-sonal journey as the magazine’s editor. I look forward to writing many more stories in the future, in the hope of deliv-ering content that matters not only to business lead-ers, leading organizations and traders, but also to the hardworking shrimp farmers, factory workers, and to all other members of the industry that have a strong passion for seafood and sustainability.farmers in India dealing with the recent cyclone that hit their coastal farms? How can we use blockchain technology to improve traceability and sustainability regulations? How do prices affect trading in major hubs all over the world?tit-for-tat moves on the gloBal marketRecently, political volatility and trade wars have been in the head-lines of many newspapers and websites. Take the US-China trade feud, for example. As the tension is reignited with the new imposi-tion of increased tariffs, the next probable question is how China will react, but even more importantly, how these new taxes will affect the shrimp industry in both countries.The turmoil between the US and China is just one among the myriad of political spats today. The vulnerability of the global market is a very real threat, especially since investors are carefully gauging the risks and damages, trying to quantify the losses and gains from every corner. All around the world, our read-ers are wonder-ing how they’ll be affected by these changes; how they’ll mitigate the harm; or how they’ll come out as winners in these sticky situations.07shrimptails | kamusta?08shrimptails | introduction to sourcing updatesthis second edition of ShrimpTailS for 2019 contains sourcing updates on ecuador, vietnam, india, indone-sia and Bangladesh. they provide the most up-to-date information in the form of a review of the previous months and an outlook for the remainder of the year. they include detailed regional information for each country, as well as country-wide production and ex-port trends, company news and international trade is-sues, amongst other relevant topics. in this introduc-tion to the sourcing updates, we summarize the main developments across the sector for this quarter.EcuAdor continuEd to brEAk rEcordsWhile in Asia it is expected that shrimp production in the first half of 2019 has actually reduced, in Ecuador records have been broken once again. From January until April, Ecuador had already exported almost 200,000 tonnes of finished product, an increase of just over 150,000 tonnes in the same period in 2018. Due to this increased volume, however, prices cannot be sustained. While the export volume increased by 25%, the export value only increased by 10%, so the average price per kg has decreased significantly. looking ahead indiASome of the farmers in Andhra Pradesh who stocked in February already or those who skipped the first crop entirely are reported to have stocked for a new crop in June. They are expected to grow their shrimp for at least two months and start harvesting in August. However, most farmers, including all farmers outside of Andhra Pradesh, are expected to wait with stocking a new crop until September or even October. introduction to sourcing updates looking BackExPort PErformAncE in thE first quArtEr of 2019The first quarter of 2019 export figures mainly reflect the exports of products that were harvested at the end of 2018 and early 2019. In Asia, all major exporters, except India and Bangladesh, reported negative year-on-year growth in the first months of 2019. Bangla-desh (both in terms of volume and in terms of value) and India (only in terms of volume) were the only countries that reported increases of imports compared to the first months of 2018. In South Ameri-ca, both Argentina (only in terms of volume) and Ecuador (both in terms of volume and value) re-ported year-on-year growth. fArmErs in AsiA continuEd to stock thEir Ponds into APrilDue to current low farm gate pric-es and the price crash during the first crop of 2018 due to an over-load of shrimp, farmers across Asia decided to delay stocking their ponds for the first crop of 2019. Normally, ponds would be largely stocked by the end of March. This year, however, stocking continued into April. Vietnam, India and Indonesia all stocked around the same time and harvested in May and June. As demand in major markets such as the EU and the US had not yet strengthened much as stocks were still high, farm gate prices had not reached the level that farmers had hoped for and many might have lost money once more.Willem van der Pijl09shrimptails | introduction to sourcing updatesThis next crop will be harvested towards the end of the year. A limiting factor for India’s next crop may be the (un)willingness of feed distributors to sell on cred-it. If credit sales are less widely available, this may have an adverse impact on India’s output towards the end of the year. viEtnAmFarmers in Vietnam will have rounded up their harvests by the last week of June. Farmers are expected to stock for a next crop immediately after. Due to the rainy season they may have to start harvesting this crop in early Sep-tember already. It remains to be seen whether farmers will stock all their ponds (or any ponds at all), as we expect that prices will have dropped below last year’s lowest point by the end of June. Although we expect prices to recover in July and August, the prospect that Vietnamese farmers will harvest simultaneously with Indian and Indonesian farmers makes it likely that prices will drop once more in September. Another risk for the re-covery of prices is that Vietnamese exporters may have been building up stocks in the first half of the year as production was good but exports were slow.indonEsiAFarmers throughout Indonesia have restocked their ponds shortly after Ramadan. Assuming that farmers will start with a first partial harvest after 60 days of culture, harvests will start from mid-August on-wards. At that time, farmers will be able to harvest small sizes of about 100 to 120 counts per kg. By early September, farmers can harvest 80 to 100 counts per kg. Unfortunately for Indonesian farmers, it seems that their harvests will coincide, as in 2018, with the harvests of the In-dian farmers who skipped the first crop of the year but have stocked their ponds again in June.bAnGlAdEshPoor survival of black tiger shrimp (P. monodon) post-larvae in Ban-gladesh has negatively affected the first harvests of this year’s crop. As a result, larger sizes (20-25 counts per kg) will only become available from mid-July onwards, a month later than normally. Prices for these sizes may therefore see a slight increase until the end of July, which is when these sizes will become more widely available and prices are expected to stabilize at around the same level of 2018; $5.40 for the 40 count and around $11 per kg for the 20 count. Due to the earlier problems, the total output for Bangladesh in 2019 may end up less than in 2018. EcuAdorEcuadorian exporters expect what they themselves refer to as a permanent trend of increasing production to continue into 2019. Prices are expected to remain flat or to even slightly decrease fur-ther. Some ShrimpTails sources ex-press the hope that Ecuador’s con-sistent output leads to increased demand for Ecuadorian shrimp. With Ecuadorian prices low, and Asian competitors struggling with YEAr-on-YEAr ExPort PErformAncE of mAjor shrimP ProducErscountryvolume (tonnes)volume (tonnes)volume (%)value ($ ’000)value ($ ’000)value (%)bAnGlAdEsh2chinA4indiA2indonEsiA1thAilAnd3viEtnAm3ArGEntinA3EcuAdor45,58653,16470,75415,94329,824n/A34,085151,45620182019yeay-on-year growth1 jAnuArY dAtA onlY2 jAnuArY And fEbruArY 20193 jAnuArY-mArch 20194 jAnuArY-APril 201912.13-14.839.63-10.24-7.18n/A7.7628.601.74-15.86-3.25-22.75-12.36-16.85-0.411.0368,791513,168566,713120,837284,446617,594235,0001,132,5076,26345,28277,56714,31127,683n/A36,729194,77967,613609,884585,771156,431324,568742,767236,0001,019,955Next >
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