Shrimp - Facts and Figures Farmed shrimp

FACTS ABOUT SHRIMP FARMING:

* Total world production of all types of shrimp (farmed and wild caught) about three million tons.
* Total world production of farmed shrimp 1999: over 700,000 tons.
* Farmed shrimp as a percentage of international trade in shrimp products: 50%.
* Top 5 producers of farmed shrimp: Thailand, Ecuador, Indonesia, China, India.
* Top importer of farmed shrimp: United States.
* US imports of farmed shrimp range between 260,000 and 400,000 a year.
* US imports up to a half of the farmed shrimp traded internationally
* Value of all fish products traded internationally: $40 billion (USD).
* Value of the international trade in shrimp products:
approximately $7 billion USD or almost 20% of the total value of all fish products sold on the international market.
* Average life span of a shrimp farm: 3-10 years after which the farm is abandoned.
* Number of years it takes land used as shrimp farm and abandoned to recover: unknown, but could be decades.
* Estimated number of hectares of shrimp farms currently under production: 1.1 million (approx. 2.6 million acres) or 11,000 square kilometers.
* It can take 90 tons of wild marine fish ground up into fishmeal feed to produce 30 tons of mature shrimp for the market.
* Estimated number of hectares of coastal mangrove forest and other ecologically sensitive wetland areas cleared to construct shrimp ponds (including abandoned sites and those still under production): one million hectares, or 2.5 million acres.
* Amount of polluted wastewater generated by shrimp farm industry in Thailand: 1.29 billion cubic meters per year.
* Estimated number of larvae of other species caught and killed for each wild shrimp larvae caught to supply shrimp farm industry in Bangladesh: 40 - 50
* Ratio of the number of jobs per hectare of mangroves vs shrimp farms: 10:1

Sources: UN FAO, US Dept of Commerce, Shrimp News International.

Read more:
Ripped out at the Roots - The destruction of Mangrove forests
Human Impacts - The effects of this lucrative export trade on local communities
Don't Be 'Shellfish' - What Greenpeace is doing and what you can do
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