I think there’s pretty broad agreement that it is indeed the case that most wild-caught shrimp are being turned into shrimp paste. The recent SWP post has some discussion.
For what it’s worth, the 40,000 ton number is also present in some other sources, but it’s hard for me to trace it back further than that due to language barriers. Since making shrimp paste involves drying the shrimp, it seems to me that the largest country manufacturing 40000 tons of paste could be consistent with 251000 tons of A. japonicus being caught.
I think there’s pretty broad agreement that it is indeed the case that most wild-caught shrimp are being turned into shrimp paste. The recent SWP post has some discussion.
For what it’s worth, the 40,000 ton number is also present in some other sources, but it’s hard for me to trace it back further than that due to language barriers. Since making shrimp paste involves drying the shrimp, it seems to me that the largest country manufacturing 40000 tons of paste could be consistent with 251000 tons of A. japonicus being caught.