India Sees Imports to Europe Fall

The retail sector cut orders significantly across Europe and shrimp stocks are said to be piling up because consumers are buying less, according to a report in The Hindu.

The report says the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) believe that demand is decreasing in all major shrimp import markets, a report by has said.

Europe as a whole saw reduced shrimp imports but the more expensive, value-added, processed and chilled products were hit harder.

There was also some amount of variance in shrimp imports among countries with countries such as the UK registering an eight per cent decline while Germany recorded a one per cent fall.

However, India was able to maintain the top position in the high-volume shell-on shrimp exports to the UK for 2008, although there was close to 33 per cent decline in quantity between 2006 and 2008. Similar was the fate of most seafood exporting countries to the UK and almost all of them faced similar reversals. Overall shrimp imports into the UK declined both in volume and value during last year, the Hindu says.