August 14, 2025 — According to NOAA, shrimp imports to the U.S. were up 18 percent year over year in the first half of 2025, with 413,718 metric tons (MT) of foreign shrimp entering the nation’s borders.
India was again the top exporter to the U.S. during the period, shipping 161,835 MT. That marked an increase of 24 percent over the previous year.
July 16, 2025 — The U.S. Senate has passed a bill directing the federal government to develop a new field test kit that can identify the country of origin of red snapper and tuna, giving law enforcement a new tool to discover illegally caught or imported fish.
“Seafood that’s caught illegally or intentionally mislabeled rips off consumers and makes it harder for law-abiding U.S. fishermen to compete,” U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said in a statement. “Our bill will help fight against anyone who tries to pass off cheap foreign tuna for high-quality ahi from local Hawai‘i fishermen.”
February 27, 2025 — In a major win for ocean conservation and ethical seafood sourcing, the U.S. government has agreed to halt seafood imports linked to deadly bycatch that harms whales, dolphins, and other marine life.
This landmark decision strengthens protections for marine ecosystems while giving consumers greater confidence in the sustainability of their seafood choices.
The agreement, announced this week, will prevent seafood from entering U.S. markets if it is sourced from fisheries that do not meet American standards for reducing bycatch — the unintentional capture of non-target species like marine mammals and endangered sea turtles.
This move addresses long-standing concerns from environmental groups and consumers who want to ensure their seafood purchases do not contribute to harmful fishing practices.
February 14, 2025 — U.S. president Donald Trump announced that he would impose reciprocal tariffs on the nation’s trading partners on 13 February, prompting numerous trade experts to predict higher prices for American consumers.
Shortly after Trump announced the measures, Capital Economics, a global financial analytics firm, told the New York Times that it “predicts that the effective tariff rate on all U.S. imports could rise from less than 3 percent now to around 20 percent.” The effective tariff rate is the percentage of the price of imported goods that goes toward paying tariffs.
November 22, 2023 — The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) will investigate whether it ought to impose antidumping duties and countervailing duties on imported shrimp from several countries.
Specifically, the DOC will conduct antidumping duty investigations of frozen warmwater shrimp from Ecuador and Indonesia and countervailing duty investigations of frozen warmwater shrimp from Ecuador, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
SEAFOODNEWS.COM by Michael Ramsingh – July 22, 2015 — Mounting evidence that the 2015-16 scallop harvest in the US is on pace to fall short of expectations, along with lower availability of imported product, has put upward pressure on the US market this summer.
In June US scallop landings out of the Mid-Atlantic were down 13 percent from the same time last year and 36 percent from the five-year-average. Since fishing started in March, US scallopers have hauled in 13.26 million pounds; down 20 percent from this time last year and 44 percent from the five-year-average.
Source: Urner Barry
These figures are counter to some industry expectations that predicted this fishing season’s domestic scallop harvest to range between 41 and 47 million pounds; at least 36 percent over last season’s haul.
Though US scallop boats will continue to fish through February of next year, landings historically tend to decline steadily into the summer and fall, before ultimately bottoming out by the fourth quarter of the year.
“The real numbers do not meet the expectations of what has been printed, discussed, and provided to the industry. The catch will most likely be millions less than anticipated if the catch rate per day continues on the current path,” said Eastern Fisheries’ Commodity Sales Manager Rob Rizzo back in April.
Meanwhile, US scallop imports haven’t fared any better with YTD shipments through May down 33 percent to 21.2 million pounds; over a 10 million pound drop-off compared to this time in 2014.
Major declines from China and Peru have largely been behind the fall in scallop imports. Shipments from China are down 47 percent, with Peruvian imports 67 percent short of last year’s levels. Higher Chinese scallop demand has contributed to the more limited shipments to the US market. In Peru, shipments are down due to production issues with the harvest.
Shipments from Japan–the second largest scallop supplier to the US–are down over 5 percent. Japanese production appears to be in position to dive over the next several months according to a report published last week. Processors in Hokkaido reported more limited access to raw materials from a bout of storms that stirred up farming operations.
“The survey showed that 93.2 percent of the processors in the region underwent impact in one way or another,” the report said. “Asked about the specific contents of the impact, 72.8 percent replied that they saw decrease in production and shipment volume while 63.1 percent said buy orders and sales declined. “
Altogether, there is less scallop supply in US inventories this year, which has started to put upward pressure on the markets. In trading this week, average Urner Barry prices for Dry IFQ 20/30 ct Domestic Sea Scallops shot up 4.5 percent to $12.50 per pound.
“Market prices for domestic products have responded sharp and swift to lower than anticipated landings and stronger auction prices,” reported Urner Barry Seafood Market Jim Kenny in the July 21 Seafood Price Current.
Since historical data suggests the US scallop harvest is likely to fall well under 2015-16 season estimates; and with imported scallop supplies more limited from a year ago, this week’s bump up in wholesale domestic scallop prices from supply concerns is well in line with typical market behavior. What remains to be seen is if this upward pressure will continue to push up the market in the weeks and months ahead.
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.