Louisiana Shrimping Season Opens to Weak Market
Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke inspects fresh shrimp at Lafitte Frozen Foods with plant manager Errol Voisin (r) and Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing chairman Harlon Pearce.
As commercial shrimpers returned to Louisiana waters in the Gulf of Mexico for the first season to catch wild white shrimp since the BP oil disaster, there is concern in the state’s seafood industry over low prices, inconsistent demand and what the near future holds if consumers worry about possible lingering effects from the massive BP spill.
Shrimper Eddie Collins (l) and dock buyer Ken Bundy of Bundy Seafood, lament a bad opening day for white shrimp season. Collins came in with a catch of only 25lbs of 21-25 size shrimp.
Prices for fresh caught Gulf shrimp brought in to Louisiana docks have plummeted. Shrimper Eddie Collins arrived with his catch to find that his buyer, Ken Bundy of Bundy Seafood in Lafitte, La., was only paying $1.50 a pound … less than one-half the price for shrimp six weeks ago. Bundy’s prices are at the mercy of larger buyers in the seafood supply chain.
A worker at Lafitte Frozen Foods unloads shrimp from Texas.
Reputation damage to Louisiana’s seafood brand is feared to be immense, and Louisiana’s seafood industry as a whole faces a major challenge in rebuilding trust with consumers because of the BP well blowout.
The shrimping industry in Louisiana creates 14,384 jobs and brings in $1.3 billion dollars a year for the state, according to the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. Louisiana ranks first in America for producing shrimp, blue crab, crawfish and oysters.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke visited a shrimp processing plant at Lafitte, Louisiana, just as the season got underway. For more than a week, Obama administration officials, including the President himself, have been praising Louisiana and Gulf seafood. President Obama was in the panhandle of Florida over the weekend with his family. The question remains how influential their reassurances about Gulf seafood will be on the consuming public.
More than a fifth of federal waters in the Gulf remain closed due to fear of oil contaminating the seafood.
“Uncertainty has ruled this whole shrimping season,” said Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. “Our brand has been tarnished and we have a lot of work to do ahead of us.”
Category: Fishermen
