The Brand Behind Costco's Kirkland Frozen Shrimp

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Shopping at Costco frequently involves a guessing game of what big-name manufacturers are actually making a given product sold under the warehouse retailer's Kirkland Signature house brand. Sometimes the association is loud and proud, as is the case with the brand behind Costco's Kirkland lasagna, Zinetti Foods. When it comes to other products, such as the house brand of cooked, peeled, and deveined shrimp, sometimes we need to look a little harder, and in places you might not expect. In August 2020, Indian shrimp exporter Kader Exports issued a voluntary recall of frozen cooked shrimp due to a possible salmonella risk. That, in and of itself, isn't exceptional. Increasing food recalls in recent years are actually a positive thing for consumers, as they mean there's greater attention on the food supply and better testing for possible hazards.

What was interesting about the Kader Exports recall, linked for posterity at the FDA's website, was that it listed affected products, and Costco's Kirkland Signature shrimp was on the roster. This means that Kader Exports is the brand behind Costco's private-label shrimp ... or, at least, it was as of six years ago. The recall affected four different kinds of shrimp: three different sizes of tail-on and one size of tail-off. Today, Costco's website currently shows only one hit for cooked, peeled, deveined shrimp — a major convenience product, since you don't need to know how to devein shrimp — with other varieties being raw and presumably from other sources.

The Kader Exports homepage lays out some 101-level facts about the company: it was founded in 1976 (making 2026 its 50th anniversary), it maintains over 5,000 employees, and it exports seafood to over 20 countries. The primary business of Kader Exports is shrimp, and lots of it. To believe the company's own promo, it has led the way in worldwide standards regarding shrimp processing and innovations in aquaculture. It deals in both raw and cooked shrimp from five different species: vannamei, black tiger, sea tiger, sea white, and flower shrimp. The company is run by the Kader family. Sustainability and adaptation to a changing world are cornerstones of the Kader Exports philosophy.

As per the 2020 recall, other brands that were supplied shrimp by Kader Exports at the time of the salmonella scare were Aqua Star, Reserve, Wellsley Farms, and Tops, just to name a few. U.S. grocer Fresh Market also apparently received its private-label cooked shrimp from the exporter then, too. In today's world, many customers are demanding more transparency when it comes to the origins and handling of their food. This is particularly true of seafood, when the chain of custody from boat (or farm) to market can have a major impact on not just the quality of the product, but also overall fish stocks and environments as well. Knowing that Costco's shrimp comes wholesale from India may or may not have bearing on consumers' decision to purchase the seafood, but more knowledge is, in our opinion, always something worth pursuing.