The latest Ecuadorian farm-gate shrimp prices show a slight recovery of between $0.10/kg and $0.20/kg across all sizes in week 50 after several weeks of continuous falls, as the chart below -- which is now available in Undercurrent News' prices portal -- shows.
However, producers are not sure this increase follows the current trend and fear that it could be something momentary "as prices had reached a shallow level already", a small-scale Ecuadorian shrimp producer from the Guayas province told Undercurrent.
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As of Dec. 11, average farmgate prices for head-on, shell-on (HOSO) Ecuadorian shrimp are $4.30/kg for 20/30 count shrimp; $3.50/kg for 30/40; $3.20/kg for 40/50; $3.00/kg for 50/60; $2.70/kg for 60/70; $2.50/kg for 70/80; $2.30/kg for 80/100; and $2.20/kg for 100/120 count shrimp.
"There are no significant reasons behind this rise beyond the fact that prices were already at their lowest point and, honestly, I don't think they will change much from now until February or March," he added.
"Demand in China has not yet normalized. We usually see an increase in demand and prices around mid-November as they start getting ready for Chinese New Year festivities. This just didn't happen."
The detection of coronavirus on the outer packaging of Ecuadorian shrimp in China back in summer is still "haunting" the sector, he said.
However, the rise has been positively accepted by producers who also think it is "atypical" considering the time of year and that Ecuadorian shrimp is not much of a Christmas product.
"Due to the pandemic, we [producers] have realized we need to take advantage of every little positive thing that happens to us," said a small shrimp producer commenting on a farmer's Facebook forum.
However, he was not optimistic about the outlook, stating there is "not a single reason" for prices to rise too much.
World's lowest
Even with the increase, shrimp from Ecuador is still the lowest in the world, as data from Undercurrent's prices portal shows.
When converted to dollars, shrimp from India, Indonesia and Thailand remain more expensive than Ecuador's. China's is by far the most expensive shrimp in the world, even though prices are falling there.
Our data portal does not yet offer the chance to convert Vietnamese shrimp prices into dollars to compare. However, as you can see from the chart below, prices in Vietnam are rising and are at VND 96,000/kg in week 47, or $4.16/kg.
December 11, 2020 at 04:55PM
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Ecuadorian shrimp prices rebound, uncertainty persists - Undercurrent News
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