The conference, being organised by Infofish, a leading inter-governmental organisation servicing the fishery industry in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, is expected to cover a wide range of issues like the global supply, world market and price trends, besides quality and environmental issues, according to a spokesman of Infofish.

Bringing in over $10 billion or 20 per cent share in global seafood trade, shrimp is undoubtedly the leading fishery commodity in world market. In Asia alone, the industry is worth about $20 billion with investment in shrimp farming infrastructure over $11 billion.

However, the industry, spread over nearly 100 countries, is passing through a stage of mixed fortunes due to the financial recession in Asian countries, a fall in shrimp catch from the wild,problems on the aquaculture front and a highly volatile price situation, market experts say.

The Infofish studies on global supply point out that with production from aquaculture sector having been overshadowed by various problems, shrimp supply was tight in the last few years. The total production in 1996 decreased to three million tonnes from 3.1 million tonnes in 1994 and 3.2 million tonnes in 1995. Shrimp deceases are yet to be tackled by major producers in Asian region where production is steadily falling while the trend is upward in Latin American countries.

According to the spokesman, shrimp catch from the wild is declining while the El Nino effect on Ecuadorian shrimp industry seemed positive against a negative impact on Asian economies facing prolonged drought and fall in production.

In the light of these trends, the main issues to be discussed at the conference are -- how will the industry adjust to the situation by next millennium, will shrimp revert to a scarce and expensive luxury productit used to be in the past and how to deal with the new challenges and develop appropriate business plans?

It has been pointed out that the net impact of growing globalisation and liberalisation on the shrimp industry would be further shrinking in global trade, but with mixed impacts in different markets.

This is mainly due to the fact that the direction of international shrimp trade, under the impact of globalisation and liberalisation, is dictated by tight supply, resulting in an upward trend in prices and slowing down in Japanese market against a positive growth in the US and European markets.

Other factors are import ban and embargoes due to tightening up on quality requirements, environmental issues, consumer activism and prevailing economic and financial turmoil in major producing countries in south east Asia, according to Infofish studies.

In contrast, shrimp exports from Latin America increased markedly due to good harvest in Ecuador and Colombia.

Meanwhile, Japanese market shrank to thelowest level in nine years with imports dropping from the peak of 304,000 tonnes in May 1994 by 12 per cent last year. India came back as market leader overtaking Indonesia, while Thailand's exports continued to decline.

According to the studies, the US and European markets showed encouraging growth. While shrimp imports into USA set a new record to reach over 294,000 metric tonnes in 1997 after continuous slow down from 1994, in EU, these increased from more than 290,000 metric tonnes in 1994 to over 318,000 metric tonnes in 1996. The imports are likely to increase further in 1997 and 1998. Apparently, the recent ban on import of shrimp into EU from certain countries did not make a major impact on supply.

China has emerged as an important market for fishery products, including shrimp. Imports of fish and fishery products into China increased from $250 million in 1988 to $1.5 billion in 1996.

The conference is expected to take stock of these developments and the possible impact on Japanese, US, Europe,Chinese and Indian shrimp market in the next millennium.

Price gaps among the main origins, Thai, Indonesian and Indian shrimp - markedly wide till recently, are becoming closer and now the prices are equal or comparable.

While supplies could not match the strong demand in the US market, prices were high throughout 1997 and in the beginning of 1998.

Will the price continue its rising trend in light of supply problem seen in the near future or will it lead to consumer resistance hampering expansion of consumption in the major market is yet another major issue to be discussed at the conference.