Trends, causes, and indices of import rejections in international shrimp trade with special reference to India: a 15-year longitudinal analysis

Shrimp is the most valued fish traded internationally, the USA, EU, and Japan being the major countries importing shrimp from Asian countries and Ecuador. Import rejections due to quality issues lead to substantial economic loss. Year-on-year change fails to capture the nature of rejection. Unit rejection rate (URR), relative rejection rate (RRR), the trend in shrimp exports, and causes of rejection in the USA, EU, and Japan during 2002-2017 were analysed. India (151,000 t), Ecuador (95,457 t), and Vietnam (35,225 t) are the major exporter to the USA, EU, and Japan (2017). Transitional probability revealed India, China, and Thailand retained major part of their share in the USA and Japan markets. In EU market, India gained entire share of Indonesia and 93% of Bangladesh share and Vietnam retained major portion (97%) of its share. Number of consignments rejected was variable but declined of late. Indian shrimp exports were stable at US and EU markets with index of 6.90% and 7.48% for exports and 11.89% and 12.14% for rejections, respectively. URR of Indian shrimp exports declined and were 0.015, 0.03, and 0.02 for USA, EU, and Japan, with higher RRR for imports from Vietnam at EU and Japan. Box-Jenkins analysis revealed Indian shrimp rejections at the USA was higher than EU and Japan. Microbiological causes dominated the rejections by USA. Chemical was the major cause for rejections at EU and Japan. Results suggest significant improvement in the quality compliance of Indian shrimp exports. The study also used panel data analysis to assess the determinants of shrimp exports to the major importers.