The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has made predictions for 35 to 42 million pounds of Pink Shrimp to be harvested in the upcoming 2022 season that runs from April to October.

For this season, the harvest will be composed of three year classes - those born in 2019, 2020, and 2021, and the Age-2 year class are expected to be a strong component of the catch this year, and fishery managers are also hopeful that a good proportion of the catch will be Age-3 year class.

Pricing has been stable throughout 2021 (at the $4.50 to $5 range for 250/350 count), and is expected to remain stable for the foreseeable future as there is plenty of inventory in cold storages and another 40 million pounds expected from Oregon alone this season.

Pink Shrimp is also harvested at the same time in the Washington State fishery where seasonal harvest totals have been on an upwards trend since 2017 with the 2020 season seeing a 13.5 million pound season - final harvest totals from the 2021 season have yet to be released by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.



California has a commercial Pink Shrimp fishery that runs during the same time as Oregon and Washington, however landings have been under 5 million pounds since 2015 and have been on the decline since.

Our recommendation is to develop a Pink Shrimp Program this year because of how stable pricing and inventories are expected to be this year - and for a product that is extremely freezer stable, and also carries the MSC certification for sustainability.

Moving onto a recap of how the Oregon Pink Shrimp fishery went in 2021.

Total harvest for the 2021 season amounted to 46.7 million pounds - from 5.7 billion Shrimp - and is the tenth highest among the fishery’s 65 year history.

Although the ex-vessel price per pound was the lowest since 2010 (at an average of $0.50/lb), the ex-vessel value for the fishery managed to reach 23.6 million USD, which is the eighth highest value of all time - anchored by high catch volume.



By number of (individual) Shrimp, 75 percent were Age-1 year class, 23 percent Age-2, and 3 percent Age-3 - with a mean count per pound of 122ct/lb.

Contact us today if you are interested in running a Pink Shrimp program as we are considered experts in this category having run a successful retail and foodservice line of West Coast Cooked and Peeled Shrimp.

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