Thai shrimp exports seen higher as EU demand rises

Thailand aimed to export shrimp worth up to $2 billion in 2006, up from $1.7 billion in 2005, as Europeans turned to seafoods instead of chicken, Poj Aramwattananont, head of the Thai Frozen Foods Association, told Reuters.

"This year is the year of Thai shrimp as everything is getting better," Poj said. "Our production has been recovering and luckily bird flu helped us."

In the first two months of 2006, Thai shimp exports to Germany rose 76 percent from a year earlier, to Britain they rose 25 percent and to Belgium they were up 220 percent, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Hatcheries along the Andaman Sea coast hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004 had provided around 60 percent of baby shrimps sent to rearing farms. They were recovering to meet rising demand, Poj said.

Thai shrimp exports to the European Union were also supported by tariff cuts given by the EU after the tsunami. EU import tariffs on Thai shrimp were cut to 4.2 percent from 12 percent in January 2006.

The cut would last for three years and be reviewed in 2009, a Commerce Ministry official said. Thailand, one of the world's leading exporter of shrimp, competes mainly against Ecuador, Brazil, China, India and Vietnam. Its key buyers are the United State, European Union and Japan.

Source: Reuters - 22nd March 2006

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