The National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has now released preliminary landings data for the Gulf of Mexico shrimp industry for the month of October.
According to NOAA’s figures, Louisiana had its biggest October harvest since 2007 – up nearly 12% from the preceding six-year historical average. Texas, on the other hand, landed less shrimp in October of this year than any prior October going back to 2007 (13% below the six-year historical average). Overall, Texas’s poor month and Louisiana’s good month averaged out to historically average production for the entire Gulf for the month of October.
For the year, this has been an average harvest. With information now compiled for the first ten months, that is likely to be the final verdict for 2013 – an average production year.
In this respect, the dockside prices reported by NOAA continue to be very high. The historical highs in landed prices are also reflected in historic highs for prices for domestic shrimp on the wholesale market. Good production numbers mean that these prices cannot be attributed to tightened domestic supply. Instead, the limitations on the supply of shrimp imports over the last two years caused by disease outbreaks in aquaculture are far more likely to be driving the market for domestic shrimp. Production volumes this year are in line with what they have been the last two years and are well above what they were in 2010. Yet prices this year are significantly higher than they have been in any of the past three.
To view October 2013 Shrimp Landings click the following link: http://redwoodserver.com/shrimp/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/October-2013-Landings.pdf