Annual global shrimp production was 5.6 million tonnes in 2023 and is estimated to reach 5.7 million tonnes in 2024 [1]. Assuming an average live weight per shrimp of 20 grams [2], this means that around 250,000,000,000 shrimp were killed last year. That’s about twice as many as the number of fish farmed each year!

Why is mankind farming one of the smallest of all farmed animals, and in exorbitant quantities? Wouldn’t it be wiser, if at all, to farm large aquatic animals such as the Arapaima, a Brazilian freshwater fish? This would at least significantly reduce the number of animals suffering.

Amazingly, Ecuador is the leading shrimp-producing country, with an area similar to that of the United Kingdom, but only 18 million inhabitants, half of whom live in the coastal region, where one in five workers is employed in the shrimp industry. 25 per cent of the world’s shrimps by weight come from this Latin American country, while China and India, 37 and 13 times larger than Ecuador respectively, each with almost 80 times the population, follow in second and third place only. In addition, more than half of the world’s shrimp weight is produced in Asia, the world’s leading region for aquaculture in general.

Reference and footnote:

[1] https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=28830292729891376&set=a.762088143805211

[2] varies from species to species and depends on age at harvest