Shrimp trades under a small vocabulary of abbreviations. They look like jargon; they are actually a precise description of how much of the animal you are buying and how much labour has already been done for you. Get one wrong on a purchase order and you will receive a technically correct shipment that is useless to your kitchen.
The cuts
| Code | Full name | What has been removed | Approx. yield from HOSO |
|---|---|---|---|
| HOSO | Head-On Shell-On | Nothing removed. The whole shrimp. | 100% (reference) |
| HLSO | Headless Shell-On | Head and thorax removed, shell and tail on. | ~62 – 70% |
| EZ-Peel | Easy-peel | HLSO with the back shell scored and the vein exposed. | ~60 – 68% |
| PD | Peeled & Deveined | Shell, tail and vein removed. | ~48 – 55% |
| PDTO | Peeled & Deveined, Tail-On | As PD but the last shell segment and tail fan stay on. | ~50 – 57% |
| PUD | Peeled Undeveined | Shell off, vein left in. Usually smaller counts. | ~50 – 58% |
| Butterfly | Butterfly cut | PD or PDTO split down the back and opened flat. | ~48 – 55% |
| Cooked / Blanched | Heat-treated | Any of the above, briefly cooked before freezing. | Further 8 – 15% loss |
Yields are indicative ranges, not guarantees — they move with species, season and piece size, and any serious supplier will state the yield actually achieved on your lot. Use them to sanity-check a quotation, not to write a contract.
Why the yield number matters more than the price
Suppose HOSO is quoted at USD 5.00/kg and PD at USD 8.60/kg. The PD looks 72% more expensive. But if PD yields 52% from HOSO, then a kilo of PD contains the meat of 1.92 kg of HOSO, which cost USD 9.60 in raw material alone — before anyone peeled it. On that arithmetic the PD offer is cheap, and the question becomes whether you can peel it yourself for less than nothing.
That is the real decision behind shrimp cuts: where do you want the labour to happen? Peeling is manual work. Doing it at the landing centre in India, next to the raw material, is generally the lowest-cost place in the chain for it to happen — which is why peeled product moves in the volumes it does.
Which markets buy which cut
- Head-on shell-on — strong across the Gulf and East Asia, where the head is part of the eating experience and a visible freshness cue. Also Southern Europe.
- Headless shell-on — the workhorse for European and North American retail. Presents well, keeps the shell's protection through the freeze.
- PD and PDTO — food service, ready meals, and any application where kitchen labour is the constraint. PDTO where the tail is wanted as a handle or for presentation.
- PUD — processors, fillings, salads, seafood mixes. Usually smaller counts where deveining is not worth the labour.
- Blanched — retail cocktail shrimp and salad applications. See our value-added range.
The specification details people forget
- Vein status on PUD. "Undeveined" is fine for small counts in a mix; it is not fine in a visible retail pack of 26/30. Match the cut to the count.
- Tail-on or tail-off. PD and PDTO are one letter apart and completely different products in a kitchen. Spell it out.
- Melanosis (black spot). Ask what treatment, if any, has been applied and make sure it is declared — sulphite treatment is an allergen declaration in most markets.
- Which count the price refers to. Counts are graded after the cut, not before. A price for "21/25 PD" refers to 21–25 peeled pieces per pound.
- Glazing. Always separate from net weight. See the size chart post for the arithmetic.
Writing the line correctly
A complete shrimp line on a purchase order reads something like:
Metapenaeus affinis, HLSO, 21/25 count graded on net deglazed weight, IQF, 10% glaze declared, 1 kg polybag × 10 per master carton, neutral carton, FOB Mundra, Incoterms 2020.
Every element of that line changes the price. Leave one out and you are inviting the supplier to choose for you. If you want a quote against a line like that, our shrimp page lists what we hold, and the import guide covers what happens after the price is agreed.