It was a turbulent year for the shrimp industry, with a hangover lingering from 2018's supply glut, excitable politicians throwing around bans and tariffs and the usual round of disease challenges tossing that extra bit of spice into the pot.

Once the domain of small-scale farmers supplying large-scale processors, a separation began to appear in world shrimp production in 2019, with a renewed focus on technology and more efficient planning and producing.

Cynics will point to the fact that oversupply and low prices often steers a drive to better planning, but this year technology and dare I say -- investment -- appear ready to take on the challenge.

Land-based production also began to nudge its head up from beneath the parapet, albeit with some teething problems. This was particularly prevalent in the product's biggest import market, the United States. And just in time too, as 2019 marked the year of rumblings that China might be about to steal the top importer crown from the United States any day now.

To get a full picture, you can find our top stories from 2019 here:

Shrimp prices crash on flooded US market through 2018

The value of shrimp imports into the US market continued to slide through November of 2018, with rising inventories bearing down on prices, according to statistics released by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

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Massive Nissui-backed shrimp farm to launch in 2021

Seafarm’s Project Sea Dragon is more than a shrimp farm. It is the building of an industry: broodstock facilities, hatcheries, grow-out ponds, processing, logistics and sales channels all established across 10,000 hectares of Australia’s remote northern coast. The ambitious project, the makings of which began in 2012, started to come together in 2019, with the first stocking now set for the end of 2021.

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CBC report finds shrimp with antibiotic-resistant bacteria at Canada retailers

A CBC investigation found what it described as "worrying levels" of antibiotic-resistant bacteria on imported shrimp bought at major grocery stores across Canada in March.

To test for the potential of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the news site bought 51 frozen shrimp products from major grocery stores in Calgary, Toronto, Saskatoon and Montreal, and sent them to a special lab at the University of Saskatchewan for analysis.

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Vietnamese shrimp giant enlists E&Y in investor hunt

One of the country's largest shrimp processors will stop working with small-scale farmers and produce 100 percent of its supply in a bid to buffer itself against low prices and bring on new investors, the president told IntraFish in April, reflecting an increasing drive in Vietnam to create more industrialized and efficient shrimp production.

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Is this the long-awaited answer to EMS?

The team who last year created affordable technology to fight the white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) in shrimp expanded its research in 2019 to come up with a viable new solution to Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS). US-based Pebble Labs spent the last few months of 2018 building on its early white spot work to tackle what is arguably shrimp farming’s most devastating disease to date.

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Minh Phu CEO: Mitsui deal will boost our global market share to 25%

With US tariffs bearing down on its main competitor, China, the Japanese conglomerate's $153 million (€137.1 million) investment in Vietnamese shrimp farmer and processor Minh Phu will help propel it to controlling as much as a quarter of the world shrimp market, Chairman and CEO Le Van Quang told IntraFish in May.

Later in the year, Minh Phu gave IntraFish further details on its plans.

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The Indian state setting a high bar for shrimp production

Industry veteran, Manoj Sharma, who helped put the state of Gujarat on the shrimp map, has come up with a reduced risk, increased production system for shrimp in the country.

Sharma has been an integral force in India's shrimp farming revolution, which has seen volumes explode from 80,000 metric tons at the turn of the century to today's 700,000 metric tons, making the country an international leader. IntraFish spoke to him in July about the future of Indian shrimp production.

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Chinese shrimp giant Guolian buys into Indian food processor

Chinese shrimp giant Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products announced plans in July to acquire a 25.3 percent stake in India food processing company Royale Marine for $4 million (€3.6 million). The acquisition is part of Guolian’s five-year strategic development plan, which includes the development of markets in China, Southeast Asia, and South America.

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Indian farmers 'completely clueless' as new shrimp disease spreads

Shrimp production in India is expected to drop in 2019 by between 20 to 30 percent, but the drop will not necessarily help bolster the persistent low prices, industry insiders told IntraFish.“Farmers are completely clueless regarding stocking, they don’t know what to do,” Balasubramaniam V., general secretary of the Prawn Farmers Federation of India, told IntraFish at the beginning of August.

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Vietnam seafood exports to China to double in H2

After a slow first half, Vietnam seafood exports to China were expected to double in the second half of this year, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP). The association estimated exports would reach $1.2 billion (€1.1 billion) during the last six months of the year.

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China blocks shrimp imports from three Ecuadorian plants

The Chinese government blocked shrimp imports from three Ecuadorian processing plants belonging to Santa Priscila, Omarsa, and Winrep in September, over fears of white spot contamination. The companies notified clients that the Ecuadorian government was consulting with the Chinese government to resolve the situation. At the time, there was mounting press speculation in Ecuador about the real reasons for the Beijng government's action, with commentators asking whether pressure from Vietnam was behind the move.

The ban was lifted in November.

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Shrimp larvae supplier linked to infections at US, Canada land-based farms

In September, a company supplying post larvae (PL) shrimp to land-based farmers in the United States and Canada was linked to one of several virus outbreaks that occurred at farms in the United States and Canada in the months before.

Several sources confirmed with IntraFish that Texas-based supplier Global Blue Technologies provided the post larvae (PL) shrimp earlier this year they believe is linked to outbreaks of the infectious hypodermal and hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHHNV) at land-based facilities that included NaturalShrimp in the United States as well as a land-based facility in Canada.

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Can this man transform the multi-billion dollar Indian shrimp industry?

The $7.1 billion (€6.5 billion) Indian shrimp farming industry, which is lacking the technology to make it truly successful, is about to get the investment it needs to shake up the supply chain -- at least if Aquaconnect's Raj Somasundaram has his way.

With a recent injection of $1 million (€912,000) in seed funding from startup accelerators Ominvore and Hatch, tech startup Aquaconnect wants to transform the sector by giving free on-the-spot access to production expertise as well as data collection and other planning tools that in other sectors of the international aquaculture industry are considered basic necessities of day-to-day business, Somasundaram told IntraFish in October.

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Indian, Mexican shrimp broodstock JV kicks off first sales

India’s first private vannamei broodstock producer was set to start deliveries to the domestic market in October, Ashok Nanjapa, director at BMR Blue Genetics, told IntraFish.

The BMR Broodstock Multiplication Centre, a joint venture between Mexican genetics company Blue Genetics and Indian vertically integrated shrimp farmer BMR, was officially commissioned in March. The facility has capacity to produce between 80,000 and 90,000 broodstock per year.

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In Depth

Here are the top farmed shrimp stories of 2019