Diversification of shrimp products in the Japanese and US markets during the 1990s

Abstract

During the 1990s the major producers of farmed shrimp in the world included countries such as Thailand, Ecuador, Indonesia, China and India. These countries exported shrimp products in frozen form. The major importers were Japan, the United States and European Union countries. This study reports changes in the trend of exported shrimp products of 10 countries by using the ‘revealed comparative advantage’ method. The selected producers were 10 shrimp exporters to the Japanese and US markets. The results of the study showed that there was a gradual increase in the export quantity of shrimp‐exporting countries such as Thailand, Indonesia and China. These countries have developed processing technology with the advantage of low production costs, as well as abundant and inexpensive labour.

Keywords:

• revealed comparative advantage
• shrimp products
• value‐added shrimps