Trade Tracker
16 SeaFood Business May 2014 Visit us online at www.seafoodbusiness.com
Tilapia trends
upward
U.S. imports of popular
whitefsh increase 7 percent
Zepol Corp. of Minneapolis
provides up-to-date U.S.
trade data through several
subscription tools: TradeIQ™
is a U.S. Customs import bill
of lading database utilized
to fnd information about
competitors, suppliers,
prospects, and the products
that they use, market, or
transport. TradeView™
provides U.S. Census
data to visualize the U.S.
import and export market.
ComplianceMonitor™ is a
comprehensive tool that
proactively alerts users of
essential U.S. import trade
compliance information. For
more information,
visit www.zepol.com.
U
.S. tilapia de-
mand has been
on a steady
uptick for the past
decade and in 2013
it grew even higher.
Tilapia imports in-
creased by nearly 7
percent from 2012 to
2013, and import val-
ues went from $970
million in 2012 to
more than $1.03 bil-
lion last year.
Te most popular
U.S. ports of entry for
the fsh are Los Ange-
les, Miami and New
York. Tere's a heavy
reliance on Chinese
product, command-
ing 67 percent of the
tilapia import market,
an increase of 6 per-
cent in 2013. Roughly
30 percent of imports
come from Indonesia,
Indonesia
Honduras
Costa Rica
Taiwan
Ecuador
Colombia
Mexico
Thailand
All other
8%
6%
5%
4%
4%
3%
1%
1%
1%
67%
China
Asia, South America dominate supply
Origins of U.S. tilapia imports
$37.5
$75
$112.5
$150
Nov
Oct
Sep
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
2012
Aug
Jan
Dec
2013
Post-Lent drop-off, end-of-year build up
Monthly imports by total value, in millions of dollars
Honduras, Costa Rica
and Taiwan, Ecuador
and Columbia.
Mexico became a
top tilapia supplier
to the United States
last year. Mexico sent
only about $18,000
worth of tilapia in
2012, but in 2013
that number jumped
to $12.4 million.
Port of Los Angeles on top
Top fve ports of entry
Los Angeles $238,732,255 40%
Miami $207,971,154 31%
New York $169,484,322 8%
Tampa, Fla. $82,333,822 6%
Seattle $76,545,140 4%