Global Shrimp Forum focuses on sustainable adaptation as India's 2025 shrimp exports near 800,000 tonnes and Ecuador exports 822,000 tonnes in first half

In early September 2026, the 2026 Global Shrimp Forum (GSF 2026) was held in the Netherlands, with discussions centered on the multiple challenges facing the shrimp industry from geopolitical tensions, tariff barriers, climate change and slowly changing consumption habits, as well as the topic of sustainable adaptation.

Less than a week after the forum ended, tariff pressure once again closed in on India's shrimp industry. US Senators Bill Cassidy and Cindy Hyde-Smith reintroduced the "India Shrimp Tariff Act," which would impose additional tariffs on shrimp and warmwater shrimp imported from India. The bill was previously introduced in 2023 but did not pass. Since then, the Louisiana Shrimp Association has continued to gather signatures, calling on the Donald Trump administration to issue an executive order restricting the volume of imported shrimp. The report described this trend as protectionism in the shrimp industry. The report also noted that the US remains one of the world's two largest shrimp importers, and a rupture in this market would shake the stable structure of shrimp commodities, with the most direct manifestation being price-cutting competition among exporters to capture other markets; rising costs from feed to transport and logistics have already thinned margins, and price-cutting competition would compress profits further. For shrimp producers, the issue is not just raising output and optimizing costs—success also depends on market diversification and meeting the increasingly stringent technical barriers of import markets.

The forum also discussed how to get European consumers to buy and eat shrimp more frequently. Circana data shows that in Europe, shrimp has not yet become an everyday table food. Surveys of consumers in France and Germany showed that 88% and 66%, respectively, buy shrimp at least once a year; but among shrimp buyers in France and Germany, only 19% and 20% eat shrimp at home at least once a week. Circana data indicates that price remains the biggest obstacle to increasing shrimp purchase frequency. Experts also suggested that the shrimp industry should not rely excessively on price cuts, nor should it seek customers through price cuts and excessive promotions. From the producer side, sustainability is an important component of distributors' and retailers' purchasing behavior. Circana data shows that 98% of surveyed retailers consider sustainability an important factor in procurement, 96.5% are implementing responsible social and environmental procurement strategies, and 92% expect sales of sustainable products to grow faster.

To date, the value of the shrimp trade is still expanding. For India, tariff pressure has prompted market diversification, and the report said India has done relatively well in this regard. In 2025, Europe, China and Vietnam all imported more Indian shrimp, while South Korea, Japan and Russia absorbed the remainder, filling the gap left in the US market by tariffs. India's shrimp exports in 2025 were close to 800,000 tonnes, 9% higher than the same period in 2024. The report argued that India's success lies not only in market diversification: the design of the aquafeed supply chain enables farmers to diversify shrimp species, thereby gaining higher market opportunities and better resilience.

For Vietnam, experts believe competitiveness lies in processing. Processed products account for the majority of total export value. Vietnam imports large quantities of shrimp from India and Ecuador for processing and re-export. The domestic market is seen as an important buffer for shrimp producers and processors. One expert estimated that Vietnam's domestic consumption demand could exceed 200,000 tonnes.

Ecuador's shrimp industry has continued to grow since 2024. Exports were about 1.2 million tonnes in 2024 and rose to 1.39 million tonnes a year later. In the first half of 2026, Ecuador had already exported 822,000 tonnes of shrimp, with a full-year export target of 1.6 million tonnes. Market diversification is Ecuador's response, but China still absorbs half of its total shrimp export value. The US has surpassed the EU to become Ecuador's second-largest shrimp importer. Multiple shipments of Ecuadorian shrimp have also gone to Asian countries, including Vietnam. The report said that for Ecuador's shrimp industry, expanding markets and diversifying products in parallel strengthens producers' and processors' ability to cope with unpredictable fluctuations in import markets.

Separately, according to the General Administration of Customs of China's August 2026 import and export statistics, under the customs commodity classification HS 0306.17 (warmwater shrimp, including whiteleg shrimp and black tiger shrimp, etc., which is a commodity classification rather than a single biological species), China's warmwater shrimp imports in August 2026 totaled 91,821.925 tonnes, with an import value of USD 435,220,666.0 and an average import price of USD 4,739.83 per tonne; the same statistics also contain another record showing that August 2026 warmwater shrimp imports were valued at USD 414,388,318.0, with an average import price of USD 4,623.51 per tonne—the two sets of figures are inconsistent.