# How many shrimp does the United States consume each day?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-shrimp-does-the-united-states-consume-each-day/182263>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 16, 2003, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-shrimp-does-the-united-states-consume-each-day/182263 "2003-06-16T18:19:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![grettle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@grettle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grettle)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-shrimp-does-the-united-states-consume-each-day/182263/1 "2003-06-16T18:19:49Z")

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Jumbo shrimp, popcorn shrimp, prawns, etc. My dad has been wondering this for as long as i can remember. He asks about daily consumption of this crustacean everytime he eats one. Please help!

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**Author:** ![chukhung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@chukhung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chukhung)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-shrimp-does-the-united-states-consume-each-day/182263/2 "2003-06-16T19:47:31Z")

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The Fisheries Statistics & Economics Division of the National Marine Fisheries Service at [http://www.st.nmfs.gov/](http://www.st.nmfs.gov/) collects a bunch of information about the world’s fisheries.

I didn’t find a direct answer to your question, but you might want to check out that site yourself and see if you have better luck. This PDF document [http://www.st.nmfs.gov/st1/fus/fus99/per\_capita99.pdf](http://www.st.nmfs.gov/st1/fus/fus99/per_capita99.pdf) has overall information about per capita consumption of fish and shellfish in the world. If you scroll to page 3 of that document, there’s a table that lists the U.S. per capita consumption of “Shrimp–all preparation” as 3.0 pounds in 1999. I’m not sure how many shrimp per person this would average out to.

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**Author:** ![peepthis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@peepthis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peepthis)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-shrimp-does-the-united-states-consume-each-day/182263/3 "2003-06-16T23:22:30Z")

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I found [this site](http://www.fao.org/docrep/T7545E/t7545e03.htm) which has info for 1986:

> [@](#):
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> The quantity of shrimp imported in 1986 established a record with 182 000 t, which included farmed shrimp from Latin America and S.E. Asia.

Of course, this excludes domestic shrimping, which is probably a significant amount from the Guld of Mexico especially. Also, I recall reading an article recently (in the NYTimes, I believe) which reported that shrimp consumption has increased precipitously in the U.S. in recent years due to the ready supplies of them from Southeast Asia. In fact, they’re producing so many in shrimping farms there that prices have been dropping steadily – further increasing demand in the States. But the numbers above can provide at least a very rough (albeit now way too low) estimate of shrimp consumption.

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**Author:** ![3waygeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/e95f7d/32.png) [@3waygeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3waygeek)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-shrimp-does-the-united-states-consume-each-day/182263/4 "2003-06-17T00:12:02Z")

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Damn, last night’s Good Eats had some shrimp consumption figures. Unfortunately, I can’t remember them. Anyway, without a breakdown by size, it’d be hard to get anything resembling an exact number – i.e. given tonnage figures and a size breakdown in percentages, you could get a decent estimate of the numbers.