In August 2008 the market for aquaculture shrimp simply hit a brick wall. By last October, the monthly sales volumes of major US importers had dropped to only about 60-70% of those the year before.
Since over 50% of the world’s supply of aquaculture shrimp is consumed in the US, this crash hurt producers around the world. But, thankfully, by December 2008 things looked a bit better. By comparison with other centre-of-the-plate proteins, shrimp prices were at comparatively low levels. Yes, unemployment in the US topped 7% in December but the 93% of employed Americans were still spending money on basics, and shrimp was cheap.
