Prawn exports to Korea surge due to World Cup, Asian games

Equestrian Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski and billiards duo Django Bustamante and Antonio Lining may have brought home gold medals from their separate events at the Asian Games held in Busan last October while Brazil may still be savoring its soccer victory over Germany at the World Cup co-hosted by Seoul last July.

But unknown to many, local shrimp and prawn growers, too, have emerged gold winners from the two giant sporting events held in South Korea this year in terms of windfall from brisk export sales of their aquaculture product.

Based on export permits issued by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, shrimp and prawn shipments bound for Korea surged to 3,194.3 metric tons in the first 11 months this year, or nearly triple the 1,210-ton export figure registered by the Bureau of Agriculture Statistics for the whole of 2001.

The January to November 2002 deliveries were worth $27 million, or almost three times more than the $10.83 million export revenues generated last year.

BFAR officials said the bonanza prawn growers have found in the Korean market this year was largely duo to strong demand related to the country’s hosting of the World Cup soccer competition last July and the Asian Games held from late September to early October 2002.

"Our prawn growers came out winners when South Korean embarked on an overseas shrimp buying spree this year to feed the multitudes of athletes, sports officials and spectators who flew from various countries to watch the two big sports events," said BFAR director Malcolm Sarmiento Jr.

Between January and June 2002, shrimp deliveries to Korea were hitting a monthly average of 212 tons. But when the World Cup took place last July, shipments for the month jumped to 386.2 tons, attaining its year peak at 527 tons in August, BFAR figures show.

Exports slowed down to 291 tons in September but at the height of the Asian Games in Busan last October, volume shipment shot up again to 451 tons, declining to 268 tons a month after.

In all, the Philippines had been shipping the crustacean products to the East Asian country at a rate of 290 tons per month in the first 11 months of 2002, compared to average monthly delivery of 100.3 tons last year.

The brisk export trade can be traced to the aggressive buying stance of Koreans, who, with the help of local contacts, have learned to devise a more efficient shrimp procurement system by going directly to major prawn suppliers in Bacolod, General Santos City, and Cebu and sending the purchased goods to their homeland by air.

It is a sharp departure from the usual trade practice wherein local prawn exporters send their fresh frozen items to their contacts in Korea by sea vessel, arriving at their destination a week later, compared to the three-and-a-half hour Manila-Seoul flight if the goods were checked-in as air cargo.

While prawn growers find the new Korean buying scheme more lucrative and work to their advantage, traditional exporters said they are being sidelined by the new system.

"The Korean and their local partners have entered into our traditional prawn sources such that whenever we look for export-grade shrimps from our usual suppliers, they can only show us inferior ones because the Koreans have gone ahead to buy the good ones," Mario Chan, manager of Wellshare Import and Export Inc., told PAJ News and Features.

South Korea bought some 1,210 tons of shrimp worth $10.83 million last year, making it the Philippines’ third biggest shrimp market next to top buyer Japan which bought 8,790 tons worth $90.15 million, and second placer United States which procured 1,650 tons valued at $15.43 million, BAS figures show.

Fishery officials and prawn industry players said Japan will likely remain as the country’s top buyer for 2002, absorbing about two thirds of total export volume.