the last 3 months of 1973, when prices increased 50 cents per pound from the first 3 months of the year. Imports from these areas do not enter the United States every month, so pricing data are not available for a few months during some years. Worldwide shrimp prices in 1975 rose from the relatively low levels reached in 1974. The National Marine Fisheries Service indicates that rising prices for the first 6 months of 1975 were due to poor catches in many areas, including Asia, Australia, and Central and South America. Increased purchases in 1975 in the world market by Japanese buyers also affected world prices. A decrease in domestic landings and a firm consumption pattern in the United States contributed to the increased world price for shrimp in 1975. A combination of rising costs, low inventories, increasing demand, increasing world catches (at least a return to average catches), and consumer resistance to increasing prices may cause shrimp prices to remain at about the current high levels of early 1976. A-83 Price Relationship Between Imported and Domestically Data supplied by the U.S. Department of Commerce on wholesale prices of imported shrimp at New York and wholesale prices of domestically produced shrimp indicate that a small differential exists between these prices. Figure 7, on the following page, shows the wholesale price of imported 26-30-count shrimp from South American and Indian sources at New York and the wholesale price of domestically caught 26-30-count shrimp (weighted average of all species). The relationship between these prices varies, with prices of U.S. shrimp higher in some years than prices of imports and lower in others. Wholesale prices of imported shrimp from India at New York from 1970 to 1975 were 10 to 25 cents per pound lower than the wholesale price of United States shrimp (weighted average of all species) from the gulf and the South Atlantic, depending on the time of year imports entered the United States and the size of the species of shrimp. A-84 |