Argentina Fisheries Output Up 24% in First Nine Months; Sharp September Fall Trims Cumulative Gain

The fisheries industrial production index (IPI pesquero) released by Argentina's National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) on November 5 shows that from January to September 2026, Argentina's fisheries output grew 24% cumulatively compared with the same period in 2025. This gain is below the level through August—when the cumulative increase had reached 39.7%—with the September decline compressing the earlier lead.

September recorded the largest year-on-year drop of the first nine months, deepening further on top of a 17.2% year-on-year decline in August. Seasonally adjusted, the index fell 17.4% month on month from August, hitting its lowest level in the period from 2026 through September. The trend-cycle component fell 6% month on month, its sixth consecutive decline since April; based on published levels, the cumulative loss from the March peak to September was about 21.2%. INDEC notes that changes in seasonal patterns and the irregular nature of fisheries production may cause both series to be revised frequently as new data are incorporated, and recommends interpreting the seasonally adjusted series together with the trend-cycle series.

By category, crustaceans concentrated this month's contraction, including Argentine red shrimp (langostino), with the group exerting a negative drag of 53.1 percentage points on the index's overall year-on-year change. Fish improved and contributed 4.6 percentage points, while molluscs contributed 0.1 percentage points, partially offsetting the crustacean decline that determined the September result. The September improvement in molluscs came after the annual balance reversed: the group had closed March with a cumulative expansion of 70%, and after year-on-year declines in April, May and June, it moved into negative territory in June.

The structure of the index itself also amplifies the base effect in year-on-year comparisons. The IPI is built by volume by species and vessel type, weighted by 2004 base-year prices, with differing weights for each component; its coverage is the production segment, and the evolution of employment, income and profitability requires dedicated indicators. The highest level of the crustacean index in 2026 occurred in June and July, when activity in 2025 was extremely low; the highest values of the previous year were concentrated in August and September, with the group up 84.1% year on year last September, leaving a high reference base for the September 2026 measurement. This calendar effect has a verifiable institutional background: on August 1, 2025, the Ministry of Human Capital announced a wage agreement reached between the United Maritime Workers' Union (SOMU) and industry associations; six days later, the Federal Fisheries Council (CFP), in the grounds for Resolution No. 9/2025, acknowledged that conditions in the red shrimp industry had delayed the normal start of the fishing season.

Marine capture fell 54.2% year on year in September, contributing 48 percentage points to the overall decline; aquaculture fell 3.2%, a drag of 0.4 percentage points. Over the first nine months cumulatively, both remain in positive growth: marine capture up 28% and aquaculture output up 4.8%. Within marine capture, the freezer vessel index fell 56.3%, contributing 47.4 percentage points to the marine capture decline; the fresh fish vessel index fell 42.8%, contributing 6.8 percentage points, with the month's largest shock concentrated in the freezer fleet. Through the end of the third quarter, freezer vessels were still up 39.2% cumulatively; fresh fish vessels reversed the direction of their annual balance in September, turning a cumulative gain of 4.3% through August into a cumulative decline of 0.8% from January to September.

Separately, according to the General Administration of Customs of China's August 2026 import and export statistics, China imported 340.606 tonnes of warm-water shrimp (penaeid shrimp, under customs commodity classification HS 0306.17) from Argentina that month, with an import value of USD 2,743,972.0 and an average import price of USD 8,056.15 per tonne.