With some of the largest companies in the world involved in shrimp farming, processing and exporting, such as Charoen Popkand Group (CP) and Thai Union, Thailand has been a driving force behind the development of the shrimp industry throughout Asia. The shrimp industry in Thailand is characterized by intensive shrimp farms and a relatively high degree of vertical integration with companies involved in feeding, breeding, farming and processing. Thailand’s factories are sophisticated compared to the factories in Vietnam and India and Thailand was one of the first countries in the world specialized in the production of value-added shrimp products. The growth of Thailand’s shrimp industry was abruptly halted by the outbreak of Early Mortality Syndrome, which caused massive mortality, crippling production, processing and export. Production more than halved over a period of 3 years, from 603,227 tonnes in 2011 to 263,245 tonnes in 2014. Exports followed, declining from its peak of 425,000 tonnes in 2010 to its lowest point of 156,000 tonnes in 2015. Although Thailand’s shrimp sector is recovering, and exports are going up again (180,000 tonnes in 2017), it is unlikely that Thailand will ever be able to return to its previous levels of production.
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FAO (2018)
Thailand's shrimp production has been severely hit by the Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS), or more specifically acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND), which caused sudden mortality in the shrimp ponds. The outbreak started in 2011 and by the end of 2014 production had halved. According to industry insiders, production is not expected to recover to previous levels anymore. The high
stocking densities, 200 pl/m2, previously used by the Thai shrimp farmers are now regarded to be too risky. Farmers currently stock much lower stocking densities than before. The recovery of production started in 2015 and in 2016 production reached just over 310,000 tonnes. It is expected that the situation will further improve in 2018, as shrimp farmers adopt several strategies to cope with diseases.
DoF (2017). Note that the figures do not include M. rosenbergii volumes.
Intensive shrimp farming is spread over Thailand’s 5 coastal regions. While previous numbers show that the area around Chao Phraya Delta was mainly known for its traditional culture of shrimp, recently, the largest production growth has taken place in Coastal zone 1, with Chanthaburi province as Thailand's largest area of P. vannamei culture. Coastal zone 5, Trang, is the most important region for P. monodon farming. In total, there are around 10,000 to 21,000 farms, covering a total area of 47,291 ha.
Source: Trade Map (2018), International Trade Centre, intracen.org
As Thailand’s shrimp production was halted by the outbreak of Early Mortality Syndrome between 2011 – 2013, export volumes and values were affected too. Export volumes dropped over 40% in that period. However, according to the latest data from Trade Map, Thailand exports US$ 1.2 billion worth of
frozen shrimp now, 7.5% more than in 2016. With export volumes increasing from 156,127 tonnes in 2015 to 186,190 tonnes and 181,140 tonnes in 2016 and 2017 respectively, the country is slowly recovering from the outbreaks. Nevertheless, the Thai producers and exporters are facing the crash in global shrimp prices in June 2018, which could result in a lower output in 2018.
The United States is and has always been the largest importer of Thai shrimp species, but export growth was especially driven by the increase of shrimp exports to Asian markets such as Vietnam, Japan and China. Compared to 2013, Vietnam has over quadrupled its Thai shrimp imports in 2017. With better-managed shrimp farms, survival rates have risen. Therefore, it is expected that Thailand will show huge production growth in 2018, once again be among the most important shrimp sourcing destination in the world.
Source: Trade Map (2018), International Trade Centre, intracen.org
Thailand's shrimp exports are almost equally split between the exports of frozen products under HS03 and the exports of value-added products under HS16. This reflects Thailand's unique position as an exporter of value-added products, which it acquired through an early investment in its processing
facilities. Nowadays, most buyers regard Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia as the best sources for value-added shrimp products. India, currently the world's largest vannamei producer, is not yet able to produce significant volumes of value-added products.
Only recently, after Thailand was hit by EMS, Vietnam overtook Thailand’s position as the world's largest exporter of value-added products. With an export volume of around 115,000 tonnes in 2017, a drop from 2011, when Thailand exported around 184,000 tonnes of value-added products. At that time Vietnam only exported 67,000 tonnes.
Last updated: 01/10/2018
| # Farm | 4 |
| # Farms in assessment | 0 |
| # CoC partners | 3 |
| Total volume (MT) | 1,300 |
| # Farms | 232 |
| # Hatcheries | 15 |
| # Feed mills | 12 |
| # Factories | 25 |
| # Re-processor | 1 |
Around 80% of the production comes from farmers using intensive culture in lined ponds. Depending on the presence of reservoir ponds a distinction can be made between intensive and super intensive. Most of the production takes place in the coastal areas of the states Chantaburi, Chachoengsao and Trat.
About 20% of production comes from semi-intensive farming. The majority of farms are located in the inland provinces Ratcha Buri, Nakhon Pathan and Suphan Buri.
Broodstock is improrted from Hawaii and Singapore. There are 300 commercial hatcheries and between 1,000-2,000 backyard hatcheries. Shrimp feed is supplied by 43 feed producers, that are registered by the DOF. Large seed and feed suppliers include CP.
Read moreBetween 10,000 - 20,000 shrimp farmers are active and tend to be organized in farmer cooperatives. Large-scale vertically integrated enterprises, like Charoen Popkand Group (CP) and Thai Union own a few farms, but source most of their raw material from other shrimp farmers.
Read moreLarger enterprises use their own brokers to go to farms to buy shrimp. Individual farmers make use of licensed traders who bring the shrimp to the processing plants or middleman who bring the chilled shrimp to local fresh markets where independent traders can buy and re-sell it to processors.
Read moreIt is estimated that the shrimp processing industry has more than 150 freezing plants, and 50 canning plants. main processing and exporting companies include CP, Thai Union, Marine Gold and Thai Royal. The main processing areas are Samut Sakhon, Trat, Surat Thani and Samut Songkhram.
Read moreContainers are packed in the factory. In order for processing plants to export, they need to be registered with the Frozen Foods Association. Thailand has three container ports: Port of Bangkok, Songkhla and Laem Chabang.
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