The southeastern Chinese province of Zhejiang has suffered severe losses from US anti-dumping tariffs on shrimps and has had to turn to other regions as an outlet for it's exports.

Customs' statistics show a 90% drop in Zhejiang's shrimp exports to the US since April when a preliminary decision was made to impose anti-dumping duties on the product. In August, Zhejiang's shrimp exports to the US had dropped to zero.

Since other countries such as Brazil, Thailand, India and Vietnam are also on the anti-dumping list, competition in other major shrimp consuming markets has become even fiercer. Zhejiang's shrimp exports to Japan and South Korea also dropped by more than 10% and 30% respectively in the last three months.

It's estimated that Zhejiang's shrimp industry has so far suffered a loss of more than 30 million US dollars.

Now the province is turninfg to other market oulets for its shrimp exports.

Ye Hongda is a local official in charge of the aquatic industry. 

"Through some influential domestic companies, we will seek new export markets in East Europe, Latin America and Africa."

And now, four months after the US anti-dumping decision, Zhejiang's shrimp exports to Canada and Indonesia have nearly doubled.

(CRI.com December 6, 2004)