Global farmed shrimp production has surpassed captured shrimp

    According to statistics recently released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), global shrimp production in 2007 (including both capture and farming) reached 6,529,041 metric tons (up 2.1% from 2006), the highest level ever recorded and the 14th consecutive year of positive growth.

    Of this, captured shrimp production was 3,253,315 metric tons, while farmed shrimp production was 3,275,726 metric tons, marking the first time farmed shrimp production surpassed captured shrimp production.
In 2007, captured shrimp production decreased by about 30,000 metric tons from the previous year, while farmed shrimp production increased by 166,500 metric tons (an annual increase of 5.4%), which was the reason for the reversal in their rankings.

    Global shrimp production has grown rapidly since the 1960s and first reached the 1 million metric ton mark in 1969. Japan's opening of imports in 1961 was the main reason for this wave of growth.

    After another 16 years, global shrimp production reached the 2 million mark in 1985. The pace of increase then accelerated, taking only 7 years to reach the 3 million mark (1992), followed by another 8 years to reach the 4 million mark (2000).

    After 2000, as Southeast Asian countries greatly expanded shrimp farming, global production reached 5.88 million metric tons in 2005 and grew to 6.39 million metric tons in 2006, breaking through the 6 million mark in one leap, an astonishing rate of growth.

    Although the pace of increase slowed in 2007, with production rising by only 137,000 metric tons from the previous year, it was still the 14th consecutive year of growth since 1993.

    In addition, global farmed shrimp production exceeded 1 million metric tons for the first time in 2001. Thereafter, as demand increased in markets such as the United States and Japan, farming scale expanded rapidly, and in 2007 it finally surpassed captured shrimp production by a ratio of 50.2% to 49.8%.

    In the course of the continued growth of global farmed shrimp production, China's developments are particularly noteworthy. In 2007, China's farmed shrimp production reached 1,265,600 metric tons (an increase of 185,200 metric tons from the previous year), making it the world's largest shrimp-farming country. At the same time, China's farmed shrimp production exceeded half of the country's total shrimp production for the first time (reaching 51.2%). However, some scholars and experts still doubt the accuracy of China's shrimp production statistics.

    The world's second and third largest shrimp-farming countries are Thailand and Vietnam, with production of 501,200 metric tons and 376,700 metric tons respectively in 2007, but both were less than their 2006 production.

    In the shrimp-farming industry, the most notable increase in production was in white shrimp. Since the 2000s, various countries have actively invested in white shrimp farming, bringing global white shrimp production to 1,647,405 metric tons in 2005, 2,090,935 metric tons in 2006, and 2,296,630 metric tons in 2007. The 2007 production not only increased by 9.8% from the previous year but also set a record high, proving that the trend of white shrimp farming has still not declined. In the overall shrimp-farming industry, the share of white shrimp also rose to 70.1%.

    Among these, China's increase in farmed white shrimp production was particularly evident. In 2007, China's farmed white shrimp production broke through the 1 million metric ton mark for the first time, an increase of 178,000 metric tons from 2006, accounting for 46% of global farmed white shrimp production. In 2007, global farmed white shrimp production increased by about 200,000 metric tons from the previous year, of which 90% came from China.