Mexico urges blocking shrimp imports from Central America, India due to EMS

Mexico's aquaculture sector has urged the country's government to close the borders to shrimp imports from Central America and India, Linea Directa reports.

Mexican farmers fear that shrimp from these regions may pose a risk of bringing in early mortality syndrome (EMS) that could hit the sector.

"They [Central America and India] have a disease that we do not know if it is EMS or another," said Aldo Villasenor, chairman of the aquaculture association Ahome, from Sinaloa, one of the main Mexican shrimp producing regions, along with Nayarit and Sonora.

"We should not import shrimp until they do not recognize or reveal what disease they are they are facing. We must close borders from a sanitary point of view," Villasenor said.

Undercurrent News reported previously that an Indian region was facing a "worse disease than EMS" and shrimp from Honduras and Nicaragua had tested positive for EMS.

The appearance of EMS in Central America, however, will likely not greatly affect the global shrimp markets, one source said.

Honduras last year produced 65 million pounds of shrimp, and Nicaragua produced about 25m pounds.

Of that, Honduras sent around 17.4m pounds worth around $66.4m to the US, with Nicaragua exporting about 6m pounds worth about $22.3m, according to US National Marine Fisheries Service data.

In 2014, the US imported a total of more than 1.25 billion pounds of shrimp worth about $6.7 billion.