 However, the rice sector experienced a decline in 2000, with export earnings down 27 percent through the third quarter 2000.Ocean shrimp exports, which were heavily impacted by a one-month import ban to the United States in 1999, accounted for only 3.5 percent of total export earnings that year.Shrimp exports rebounded in 2000, representing 11 percent of export earnings through the third quarter 2000.