These were among the key components of a special session of today’s Global Shrimp Forum, with the Mexican perspective offered by Andres Marriot, Latam north strategic marketing and technology director at Cargill Animal Nutrition and David Castro, director general of Manta Bay. Meanwhile the Brazilian insights were offered by Pierre-Joseph Paoli, president for growth and commercial excellence at ADM Animal Nutrition and Rafael Pedroza, partner at Marchef Pescados.
The Mexican perspective
Mexico’s shrimp sector is defined by a striking statistic: around 95 percent of production is consumed locally. As Marriot put it, “Domestic consumption is king… the incentives to maintain the supply within the country are extremely great.”
With a population of 120 million and a long cultural tradition of shrimp consumption dating back to pre-Hispanic times, Mexico has a ready market at home.
Production is geographically concentrated. About 90 percent of shrimp comes from Sonora and Sinaloa, with the former optimised for scale and the latter more flexible to serve local markets. Mexico produced close to 200,000 tonnes in 2024, and consolidation is accelerating – the 20 largest producers now control 38 percent of the farmed area and 60 percent of the production volumes.
Technology adoption, however, remains a challenge. Semi-intensive systems account for 95 percent of farms, while only about 35 percent of the ponds contain automatic feeders and aeration systems only cover 1 percent of the surface area.
While lagging well behind Ecuador’s programme of “technification”, Marriot notes that “the space to develop is so large.”
While increasing efficiencies could enable Mexico to make inroads into lucrative export markets, such as the US, Castro expects Mexico to remain focused on the domestic market, while also denying shrimp imports from countries such as Ecuador.
“It’s a political situation… I don’t see Mexico opening its market in the near future. Consolidation and local consumption growth will continue,” he predicted.
The Brazilian situation
Brazil’s shrimp industry is also highly domestically-focused, with most production currently consumed fresh inside the country. But, unlike Mexico, Brazil is pushing aggressively to grow both production and consumption. While the current output is in line with Mexico’s, it's growing much more quickly, nearly doubling in the last five years and with a target of 500,000 tonnes by the end of the decade.
Consumption is rising in parallel. As Paoli highlighted: “Five years ago per capita consumption was 500 grams. Nowadays it’s almost a kilo, and we expect it to reach 1.5 to 2 kilos in the next five years.”
Production is centred in the northeast states of Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará, with farms gradually shifting inland, where densities are higher and genetic adaptation is crucial. Smallholders are numerous – with around 3,500 producers in total – but most output comes from medium and large farms. Many operators are moving toward self-sufficiency in hatcheries, reflecting a trend toward vertical integration.
The biggest challenge for Brazil is affordability. Shrimp remains an expensive protein compared to beef and chicken, which are staples of the Brazilian diet.
“If you make shrimp more affordable, demand will grow from the general public,” Pedroza observed and companies are working on solutions, from smaller pack sizes (150–250 grams) to frozen products that can be distributed far inland.
Closed markets, yet open to risks
Both Brazil and Mexico effectively have closed markets, with minimal shrimp imports. This protects local producers but raises questions about long-term competitiveness.
As one participant cautioned: “You protect your market, but then at what cost? With less competitive pressure, eventually when markets open you will be exposed to inefficiencies.”
For Mexico, the priority remains feeding a large domestic market and stabilising production costs. For Brazil, the priority is expanding demand by making shrimp accessible beyond the coastal middle class.
Despite differences, the two industries share vulnerabilities: disease risk, high production costs, and limited processing capacity, yet panellists from both countries were cautiously optimistic - as Castro predicted: “Production in Mexico will consolidate and grow, but still attend mainly the local market", while Pedroza suggested that: “In the next five years we will create a culture of shrimp consumption in the middle and south of Brazil… people that never ate shrimp before will be buying it.”
Whether these ambitions materialise will depend on the development of technology, efficiency and marketing nous. But, for now, Mexico and Brazil stand as two of the world’s most intriguing cases of shrimp industries with domestic markets big enough to promote long-term growth without the need to resort to exports.
