Fishmeal & shrimp: Characteristics
Count per pound and freshness: how seafood is graded
What this tab covers The supply and physical characteristics of the commodity. Supply: current production, inventories and stocks, capacity utilisation, geographic and producer concentration, how fast supply responds to price, the project pipeline and capital spending, and logistics and export flows. Material: the physical and chemical properties that set its grade, price and end uses (for example purity and conductivity for metals, API gravity, sulfur and energy content for fuels, moisture, protein and fibre quality for crops).Supply volume characteristics
| Characteristic | Figure | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current production volume | 185.4 Mt of aquatic animals (2022), of which aquaculture 94.4 Mt; fishmeal about 5.3 Mt (2025) | 2022 was the first year farming overtook wild catch (91.0 Mt). India exported 1.70 Mt of seafood worth $7.45 billion in FY2025, 0.74 Mt of it frozen shrimp. | FAO SOFIA 2024; USDA PSD; MPEDA FY2025 |
| Inventory and stock levels | no public stocks; cold-store and port stocks only | Frozen shrimp sits in importer cold stores for weeks to months. Fishmeal stocks in Chinese ports are watched as a demand signal, but no official series is published. The live reserve is the fish biomass itself: Peru's 2026 first-season anchovy quota of 1.91 Mt was set at 27% of estimated biomass. | IFFO via Fish Farming Expert, May 2026; Undercurrent News, Apr 2026 |
| Capacity utilisation | not published; Peru's reduction plants run only as hard as the anchovy quota allows | Peru's first-season quota fell from 3 Mt (2025) to 1.91 Mt (2026), down 36%. IFFO members' fishmeal output fell 28% year on year in Q1 2026, so plant capacity was well under-used. Indian shrimp processing plants also run below capacity outside harvest peaks, but no figure is published. | Salmon Business, 2025; Undercurrent News, Apr 2026; IFFO via Fish Farming Expert, May 2026 |
| Geographic and producer concentration | frozen shrimp exports: Ecuador 38.3%, top-3 (Ecuador, India, Indonesia) 71.4%; fishmeal exports: Peru 31.6%, top-3 48.1%; fresh salmon: Norway 48.4% (2024, by value) | China takes 52.4% of fishmeal imports; the US (26.7%) and China (26.2%) take over half of shrimp imports. Mowi alone harvested 559,000 t of salmon in 2025. No production HHI is computed because the tile mixes species. | UN Comtrade 2024; Mowi 2025 results |
| Supply elasticity | mixed: shrimp fast (3-4 month pond cycles), salmon slow (licence-capped, 2-3 year cycle), fishmeal fixed by quota | Shrimp farmers can restock ponds within a season when prices rise, which is how Ecuador and India flooded the market after 2016. Salmon output is capped by Norwegian and Chilean licences. Fishmeal supply cannot respond to price at all in the short run: it follows El Nino and IMARPE's biomass surveys. | content of this tile; IFFO 2026 |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | Mowi guides 605,000 t of salmon for 2026, up from 559,000 t | Growth in shrimp comes from Ecuador and India adding pond area and intensifying. Fishmeal growth comes from fuller use of processing trimmings, not new catch. Insect and algal feed plants are small so far. | Salmon Business, Feb 2026; FAO SOFIA 2024 |
| Logistics and export flows | shrimp exports $16.3 bn, salmon $16.6 bn, fishmeal $5.1 bn (2024) | Frozen shrimp moves in reefer containers from Guayaquil, Visakhapatnam and JNPT; India sent about 36% of its export value to the US in FY2025. Fresh salmon trucks from Norway through Sweden into the EU and flies to Asia. Fishmeal ships in bags or bulk from Callao and Chimbote to China. Bottlenecks: US tariffs and anti-dumping duties on shrimp, EU and FDA residue checks, reefer container availability. | UN Comtrade 2024; MPEDA FY2025 |
Material characteristics Agricultural / soft commodity
Seafood is sold by species, size and freshness, and marine feed by protein and freshness. For shrimp the count per pound sets the price, and residue testing decides market access. For fishmeal, crude protein and freshness markers such as TVN and histamine set the grade and premium. Salmon is priced by weight class and quality grade.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fishmeal crude protein | Peruvian standard about 64-65%; prime and super prime about 67-68% minimum | Higher protein grades earn premiums for shrimp and salmon starter feeds | Peruvian export grades, trade specs (indicative) |
| Fishmeal freshness (TVN, histamine) | super prime about TVN 100 mg/100 g max and histamine 500 ppm max; standard grades higher | Stale raw fish lowers digestibility and feed value | Peruvian export grades, trade specs (indicative) |
| Fishmeal fat and moisture | fat about 8-12%, moisture about 10% max, antioxidant-treated | High fat and moisture risk oxidation and self-heating in holds | IMO cargo rules; trade specs (indicative) |
| Shrimp count | pieces per lb, e.g. 16/20, 21/25, 26/30, 31/40 | Larger counts sell at much higher prices per kg | industry grading (indicative) |
| Glaze and net weight | ice glaze declared as% of gross weight | Overglazing is a common weight fraud and a cause of disputes | Codex CXS 92-1981 for quick-frozen shrimps |
| Antibiotic and chemical residues | EU and US zero-tolerance for banned drugs such as chloramphenicol and nitrofurans | Positive tests bring rejections, import alerts and higher border sampling | EU Regulation 37/2010; US FDA import alerts |
| Salmon grade and fillet colour | Superior / ordinary grades; colour target about SalmoFan 25-27 | Colour and fat drive retail acceptance and price | Norwegian quality grading (indicative) |