Date – September 3, 2010

Somsak Paneetatyasai, president of Thai Shrimp Association, said that Thai shrimp export should increase to by 10% to 400,000 tons compared with last year’s 3.9 million tons. Its total value is expected to rise by 10-20% to 100 billion Baht.   

“This year we export more shrimp in all markets, even in China that also imports shrimps from Thailand. So we’re convinced that this year’s shrimp export will be greater than 100 billion Baht. After all, the government needs to control Thai Baht not to be too strong because Thailand is having advantages over others,” said Mr. Somsak. 

Next year, demand for Thai shrimps should continuously expand. However, shrimp raisers should closely follow situations. If Vietnam and Indonesia can deal with epidemics, price of Thai shrimps will drop because Vietnam has a policy to reduce its currency. Strengthening Baht will cause Thai shrimp export to face difficulty in competition. According to the problem of oil leakage in the Gulf of Mexico, though some leaks have been fixed, the situation is still not normal. Therefore, the United States has to order shrimps from Thailand.