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September Shrimp Landings Thirty Percent Below Historical Averages

This morning, the Fishery Monitoring Branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries’ Southeast Fisheries Science Center released shrimp landings data from the Gulf of Mexico for September 2019.

NOAA reported that shrimp landings in the Gulf last month (9.0 million pounds) were the third lowest reported for any September since 2002; 29.9 percent below the prior seventeen-year historic average of 12.9 million pounds for September.

For the month, landings of shrimp in Texas (4.0 million pounds) were substantially below the volume landed last September (5.4 million pounds) and were 29.5 percent below the prior seventeen-year historic average (5.7 million pounds). Landings in Louisiana (3.1 million pounds) were also below those reported last year (3.3 million pounds), and were 40.3 percent below the prior seventeen-year historic average (5.2 million pounds).

Through the first three quarters of the year, 58.0 million pounds of shrimp has been landed in the Gulf of Mexico, down from 72.3 million pounds in the first nine months of 2018. Shrimp landings in Louisiana for the year (20.1 million pounds) are down from 27.6 million pounds last year, as are landings in Texas this year (22.8 million pounds) compared to last (26.7 million pounds) and in Alabama (9.5 million pounds) compared to last (11.8 million pounds). This is the first time since the BP oil spill in 2010 that more shrimp has been landed in Texas than in Louisiana over the first nine months of the year.

NOAA did not report ex-vessel prices for shrimp landed in the eastern Gulf (Florida west coast) and has not reported September prices for shrimp in that region since 2016. However, NOAA did report ex-vessel prices for six count sizes of shrimp landed in the northern Gulf (Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi) and western Gulf (Texas). All ex-vessel prices reported for shrimp landed in the northern Gulf were significantly above those reported last September. Without adjusting past prices for inflation, the ex-vessel price for U15 shrimp in the northern Gulf, $9.67, was the highest reported for such shrimp in any September going back to 2001. Ex-vessel prices in the western Gulf for all but 41/50 count shrimp were also reported to be significantly higher last month than they were in either September 2018 or September 2017.

As in past months, NOAA’s monthly reporting of shrimp landings in the Gulf of Mexico continues to include the following disclaimer:

“BE ADVISED THAT THE SUMMARIES IN THIS REPORT ARE COLLECTED OR ESTIMATED BY THE FEDERAL PORT AGENTS AND MAY NOT REFLECT THE LANDINGS FROM THE STATES”

As previously noted, the numbers reported – and the ex-vessel prices that have not been reported – over the last several months by NOAA appear to indicate that port agents may have been unable to collect information in the same manner as they have done historically.

Please click the following link to view SSA’s compilation and summary of September 2002-2019 Shrimp Landings and Ex-Vessel Prices for September 2001-2019: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/September-2

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