Abstract: The paper analyzed the major characteristics of world shrimp production and trade for recently 20 years using the latest statistical data. The results showed that along with the rapid development of shrimp farming, there has occurred a big change for the shrimp production shifted from fishing to farming, and the world shrimp trade volume has presented a steady growth trend. A typical feature for the shrimp trade was shifting from developed countries to developing nations. No less than 9.87 billion U.S. dollars was reached for net exports of shrimp from developing to developed nations in 2006. The export commodity was mainly frozen shrimp, but steady increase was seen in the proportion of shrimp prepared or preserved. Shrimp imports mainly concentrated in three major markets: the EU, the United States and Japan, and shrimp exportsmainly in Southeast Asia and American countries. However, there was a significant difference for competitive advantage among the exporting countries, the competitiveness of Chinese shrimp exports was significantly weaker than other major export countries in Southeast Asia.