IMNV in shrimp is disaster for Indonesian farmer, many farmers went bankruptcy because of this virus and this impact to market in South East Asia. Normally, EU or USA tend to buy big size (40 pieces /kg. or bigger) from Indonesia due to more competitive price compare to Thailand but after shrimp got infected, farmer have to make emergency harvest. The result was there were huge quantity of small shrimp came out from Indonesia and prices were very cheap. Make urgent harvest and sell at any price.
Come back to Thailand, this year is one of the hottest year. Temperature went up to more than 40°c which affect to water temperature and salinity. As mentioned in previous post, shrimp eat less, slow growth rate and difficult to control the size. No choice for farmer, they have to make urgent harvest. This is better than nothing, better than taking risk to continue feeding shrimp.
Price for small size started to drop down since mid of April and keep going down until now. Many buyers are wondering “is it a good time to buy shrimp from Thailand now?”. I can answer YES for small size from 60 pieces/kg. or smaller. Forecast that price is reach the bottom or very close to the bottom now and will rebound in next 1 or 2 month or let say that, buyer will get the best offer for small size during this month. For size that buyer have to wait is 45 pieces/kg. or bigger. Now price is around 4.5 – 4.8 USD/Kg based on head on. Forecast that price will go down to suitable level to buy around September (around 4.2 USD/kg or lower for 45 pieces/kg.). So don’t buy big size now, wait until last 4 months of the year.
Hope my comment can help. Good Luck!
*my price based on head on raw material price.
