ANALYSIS OF U.S. SHRIMP IMPORTS FROM INDIA AND OTHER MAJOR EXPORTERS: THE GRAVITY MODEL APPROACH

US is the major shrimp importing nation which imported 664,000 metric tons worth $6.54 billion in 2017.   India accounted for a share of 22.7 percent of shrimp imports quantity to the United States followed by Indonesia (17.7%), Thailand (11.3%), Ecuador (10.8%), Vietnam (8.4%) and China (6.9%) during 2017.  This study aims to identify the most important factors affecting the USA shrimp imports, with its main trading partners for the period (1990-2016). The UN Comtrade database was used to retrieve the data from 1990 to 2016 for various shrimp exporters of US. To achieve this objective, panel data regression model was adopted. Shrimp refusals database from US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) were also analyzed for various exporting countries.

The Indian Government policy of importing (Specific Pathogen Free) SPF by the permitted hatchery operators through scientific quarantine has been more successful in increasing production and exports during the last decade as compared to a Ecuadorian (Specific Pathogen Resistant) SPR program and China's indigenous SPF development program. Balanced panel data was employed in this study with six panels and 27 time periods, so the total number of observation is 162.  Based on the results of Hausman test and Breuch Pagan Lagrangian multiplier test, random effects model was adopted. Shrimp demand is governed by average per capita income, increasing consumer's preferences and change in attitude towards consuming seafood. Increased level of personal income level in the exporting country had a negative impact on US shrimp imports which indicate increased domestic consumption of shrimp in those countries. The present study also found the shrimp imports increased by increasing GDP and population of US. LM test clearly showed that there is significant difference among various regions and panel effect between various exporting countries to US. Reduction in rejection frequency of Indian containers over the years is mainly due to the concerted efforts taken by MPEDA, EIC, ICAR, State Departments for increasing the quality of farmed shrimp. US rejected 36, 33, 28, 17, 10 and 6 shrimp containers of Vietnam, India, Indonesia, China, Thailand and Ecuador respectively during 2017.