Mexican Shrimp Exports Sink;
More Domestic Sales Now Sought

Wild shrimp prices in Mexico have fallen 25-30% this year, according to Ricardo Michel Luna, head of the Unión de Armadores del Litoral del Océano Pacífico, as reported by Ecuador’s Camara Nacional de Acuacultura website, and building a domestic market is thus essential.

With prices so low and sales sluggish at Ocean Garden, the country’s largest marketer of Mexican shrimp, the fishing sector faces a marketing crisis for its products, Luna warned. “Ocean Garden has not even sold 30% of its inventory of shrimp. In the international market, this situation is critical because there are no sales,” he said.

Those whom sell product in the domestic market are doing so largely in Zapopan, Jalisco (near Guadalajara), and in Mexico’s City La Viga market. But Luna pointed out that other channels must be explored, such as Tijuana, Chihuahua and Aguascalientes. The main competition is farmed shrimp, for which the price is considerably lower.

Farmed shrimp is definitely impacting the sale of wild shrimp because the reality is that people are not looking for quality, but rather price,” Luna said. One of the efforts is the implementation of a marketing campaign, under “Sinaloan Wild Shrimp” banner, designed to gain differentiation between wild and farmed shrimp.