As part of its “Know Your Supplier” initiative, the Southern Shrimp Alliance annually updates databases providing detailed information regarding shrimp imports rejected from the European Union, Japan, and the United States due to the presence of banned antibiotics. The databases, made available in Excel format, now include information for calendar year 2025 for the actions taken by enforcement agencies in three of the world’s major shrimp import markets.
The database of information from Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Imported Foods Inspection Services (IFIS) compiles information regarding shrimp imports rejected because of banned antibiotics between November 2010 and 2025. Last year, IFIS reported refusing twelve (12) shipments of shrimp because of the presence of banned antibiotics, with all originating either from India (3) or Vietnam (9).
The European Union’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) is a database that compiles notices regarding every alert regarding shrimp imports found to contain banned antibiotics between 2001 and 2025. Last year, RASFF included notices for thirteen (13) shipments of shrimp refused entry into the European Union because of banned antibiotics. All of these notices involved either shrimp from India (8) or shrimp from Vietnam (5).
The database of U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) entry line refusals compiles information regarding every shrimp entry line refused for reasons related to banned antibiotics between 2002 and 2025. Last year, the FDA refused ninety-three (93) entry lines of shrimp because of antibiotics, the most since 2016. A majority of these entry line refusals involved shrimp exported from India (32), Indonesia (30), and Vietnam (14). The remaining seventeen (17) entry lines of shrimp refused for banned antibiotics by the FDA in 2025 were for shrimp exported from China (8), Malaysia (6), Bangladesh (1), Thailand (1), and Hong Kong (1).
The Southern Shrimp Alliance is providing this updated information in order to enhance the ability of consumers, importers, wholesalers, retailers, and restaurants to evaluate the risk of exposure to contaminated shrimp from various sources. As these data confirm, antibiotic use in shrimp supply chains is overwhelmingly concentrated with only a small subset of countries engaged in shrimp aquaculture.
As the charts below demonstrate, over the last fourteen years, RASFF notifications regarding shrimp contaminated by antibiotics have been dominated by imports sourced from India and Vietnam. Over the same time period, the vast majority of imported shrimp rejections in Japan because of the presence of banned antibiotics have also been of products sourced from India and Vietnam. For the United States, other than the refusals for Malaysian shrimp that were likely transshipped Chinese shrimp, the largest source of refusals was India followed by Vietnam.
Once again, in 2025, the reporting of three major seafood importing markets continues to demonstrate that shrimp farmed and exported from India and Vietnam present unique risks of antibiotic contamination. For its part, the European Union has maintained additional, particularized measures to address the enhanced risk presented by shipments of contaminated Indian shrimp, requiring that 100 percent of all shipments be tested prior to exportation and that 50 percent of all shipments be tested at importation.
Nevertheless, even with increased testing and greater scrutiny, the European Union again confirmed in 2025 that it continues to detect banned antibiotics in Indian shrimp.
At the same time, 2025 marked the first year that any of the three major seafood importing markets identified issues with banned antibiotics in Indonesian shrimp. As shown in the tables above, over the last fourteen years, the European Union and Japan have only refused one shipment of Indonesian shrimp, respectively, for the presence of harmful veterinary drug residues. Nevertheless, last year, the FDA refused thirty (30) entry lines of Indonesian shrimp – more than the total number of entry lines of Thai shrimp refused by the United States over the entirety of the fourteen-year period. In just one year, Indonesia moved into sixth place amongst foreign shrimp suppliers for entry line refusals and with another four entry line refusals already reported thus far in January 2026, Indonesia is likely to surpass Bangladesh this year.
Finally, the FDA database made available here omits six refusals of shrimp entry lines for reasons related to veterinary drug residues that were originally reported by the agency in May, June, and July of 2025. These six entry lines are comprised of four from Bangladesh’s Apex Foods in May (Shipment IDs: 224-4643873-5/12/1; 224-4643873-5/12/2; 224-4643873-5/12/3; and 224-4643873-5/12/4; Refusal Date: May 20, 2025); one from Vietnam’s An Phu Factory – Soc Trang Seafood Joint Stock Company (Stapimex) in June (Shipment ID: 082-0463566-1/12/1; Refusal Date: June 26, 2025); and one from India’s Kader Exports Private Limited, Unit 5 in July (Shipment ID: KM6-1631810-1/12/1; Refusal Date: July 15, 2025). The FDA’s public database of information regarding import entries reports these refusals but also, for the same shipments identification numbers, subsequently reports that these entry lines were eventually released into the U.S. market after detention. For example, the four shipments from Bangladesh’s Apex Foods are reported as “Refuse Inform Before Export” with a final disposition date of May 20, 2025 and, under separate lines, are also reported as “Rel After Detain” with a final disposition date of July 7, 2025. If correct, this means that the four entry lines at issue arrived in the United States on April 20, 2025, were refused on May 20, 2025, and then were subsequently determined to be admissible and released into Commerce on July 7, 2025.
The updated databases may be accessed here: https://shrimpalliance.com/take-action-2/banned-antibiotics/
Entry line final disposition information regarding the six shipments initially reported as refused but not included in the FDA’s current database available for review here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/2025-Shrimp-Entry-Lines-Reported-Refused-Then-Released-1.xlsx