On Tuesday, NOAA’s Gulf of Mexico Data Management division released July shrimp landings data for the Gulf of Mexico.
For the month, over 8.0 million pounds of shrimp were reported as landed in the Gulf of Mexico, up from 6.7 million pounds in July 2016. Nevertheless, this total was still significantly below (31.9 percent) the prior fifteen year historical average of 11.8 million pounds in the month of July.
Landings of shrimp in Louisiana last month, 2.5 million pounds, were the second-lowest reported for any July over the sixteen year period tracked by the Southern Shrimp Alliance, with only July of 2010 (1.3 million pounds) registering a lower volume shrimp harvest. Shrimp landings in Louisiana last month were nearly half of the prior fifteen-year historical average of 4.5 million pounds for the month of July.
At the same time, shrimp landings in Alabama last month were at 1.8 million pounds, double the prior fifteen-year historical average of 0.9 million pounds for July. Landings in Alabama were the second-highest reported for any July over the sixteen year period tracked by the Southern Shrimp Alliance, with only July of 2009 (1.8 million pounds) resulting in a slightly higher total volume.
Through the first seven months of 2017, 49.2 million pounds of shrimp has been landed in the Gulf of Mexico. This is significantly higher than the total volume of shrimp landed over the same timeframe in 2014 (40.5 million pounds), 2015 (40.4 million pounds), and 2016 (41.9 million pounds), but still 10.1 percent below the prior fifteen-year historical average of 54.7 million pounds.
For the year, only Louisiana is significantly below its prior fifteen-year historical average of 29.5 million pounds, down 33.2 percent to 19.7 million pounds in 2017. In Mississippi, the 3.3 million pounds of shrimp landed this year is only slightly below the prior fifteen-year historical average of 3.4 million pounds, while the 13.7 million pounds of shrimp landed in Texas this year is slightly above the prior fifteen-year historical average of 13.6 million pounds for the state. At 4.6 million pounds so far this year, shrimp landings on the west coast of Florida are 8.1 percent above the prior fifteen-year historical average of 4.3 million pounds. And in Alabama, the 7.9 million pounds of shrimp landed this year is roughly twice the prior fifteen-year historical average of 4.0 million pounds.
As a general matter, NOAA reported that ex-vessel prices for landed shrimp last month were above ex-vessel prices for landed shrimp in July 2016. In ports in Texas, categorized as the western Gulf, ex-vessel prices for U15 count shrimp were reported to be $9.75 per pound, well above the $9.01 price reported for the region in July 2016. Similarly, 26-30 count shrimp had an ex-vessel price in the western Gulf of $4.06 per pound last month, up from $2.76 per pound in July 2016, while 41-50 count shrimp was reported to have an ex-vessel price of $2.38 per pound in the western Gulf, roughly twice the ex-vessel price of $1.20 reported last year. Northern Gulf ex-vessel prices were uniformly reported to be lower than eastern and western Gulf ex-vessel prices for the month.
Please click the following link to view SSA’s compilation and summary of July 2002-2017 Shrimp Landings and Ex-Vessel Prices for July 2001-2017: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/July-2017-Landings.pdf