About Willem van der Pijl
I am 36 years old and working from Utrecht, The Netherlands. I have a background in Cultural Anthropology, International Development Studies and Business to Business sales. Since 2011 I have been involved in the shrimp industry.
My field of expertise. I am a shrimp nerd with a broad understanding of and a big fascination for the shrimp industry. As an industry analyst, I have a thorough understanding of the structure and dynamics of most shrimp markets and most shrimp producing countries. My expertise covers the input, the farming, the processing, the export/import and the market distribution segments of the industry. I know where to find and how to work with the best data sources that help to strengthen fact based reporting. Besides my understanding of the industry I am a natural matchmaker with a good sense for the type of people in the industry. My network is global, covers all segments of the industry, and is at your disposal when we work together.
The jobs I had before. My career in the shrimp industry started in 2010 at the University of Amsterdam where I studied and worked as a researcher. I studied the strategic behavior of shrimp exporters in India.. In 2012, I joined Wageningen University and was assigned to expand the aquaculture research activities of the Agricultural Economic Institute (LEI) to Asia. I initiated projects in Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and more. At the same time I started the development of the Seafood Trade Intelligence Portal (STIP). A network of more than 100 companies in the shrimp industry made use of the intelligence services of STIP since then. In 2015 I joined Solidaridad Network. I continued the development of aquaculture projects in Asia, especially Bangladesh, Myanmar, India, and Indonesia. I kept developing STIP further into a commercial enterprise. In 2018, I co-founded the ShrimpTails magazine, and developed it into a widely read magazine with 10,000+ readership. My consultancy clients at STIP included non-profits, feed companies, importers, exporters, technology suppliers, financial institutions, and many others. Early 2020, I decided to leave STIP and start Shrimp Insights.
Where I worked and traveled. I have been lucky to have visited feed mills, hatcheries, farms and processors around the world. During my early career, I lived for about a year in India and visited all major producing areas. Later on, I have had the opportunity to spend time in Ecuador, Peru, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and the Philippines. I have visited seafood trade shows and conferences around the world.