Congressmen Garret Graves of Louisiana and Jerry Carl of Alabama recently sent a letter to Thomas Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, requesting the department once again purchase Gulf shrimp. Photo: Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News
by Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News
U.S. Congressmen Garret Graves of Louisiana and Jerry Carl of Alabama recently sent a letter to Thomas Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, requesting the department once again purchase Gulf shrimp under Section 32 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act to be donated to schools, the underprivileged and disaster relief groups.
Rep Garret Graves dialed in to the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee hearing on budget priorities from the Springfield Fire Department in Livingston Parish, Louisiana, on September 2, 2021, shortly after Hurricane Ida struck. Photo: Garret Graves
During the pandemic years of 2020-21, the Department made two similar purchases of $25 million and $24.7 million led by the efforts of Rep. Graves and the American Shrimp Processors Association (ASPA), a member of the Louisiana Fishing Community Recovery Coalition.
“Hurricanes and other major storms have been hard on our shrimpers over the last handful of years. The grounds that our shrimpers are used to fishing have been disrupted, their equipment and homes damaged, and they have lost out on time on the water. Domestic, wild caught shrimp are a healthy and sustainable source of protein for Americans,” said Graves.
“We are in dire need of any and all help on both the state and federal level,” said Acy Cooper, president of the Louisiana Shrimp Association. “We really appreciate any and all help, and thank Congressmen Graves and Carl for this effort. More is needed though. Our state also needs to step up and purchase our fresh harvested seafood products. High fuel prices and low shrimp prices will be the downfall of our shrimp industry.”
According to Dr. David Veal of the American Shrimp Processors Association, “When the first purchase of warm water shrimp was made, fishermen in the Gulf and Southern Atlantic thought the USDA would just back big trucks up to the docks and buy right off the boat. That is not how the program works. You have to understand that the USDA is not in the business of helping fishermen; their job is providing nutritional food to those in need. There are a lot of hoops processors have to jump through win a government contract.”
Explaining the program, Dr. Veal says the shrimp sold to the USDA is close to current market prices. What the program accomplishes is emptying the full freezers of packinghouses so more shrimp can be bought from the boats.
USDA shrimp purchases were instrumental in kick starting the sale of shrimp and resulted in clearing the backlog of product from the supply chain. Photo: Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News
“The ASPA has worked closely with Congressmen Graves and Carl to support the purchase of domestic warm water shrimp by USDA,” said Dr. Veal. “As in 2020 and 2021 such purchases were instrumental in kick starting the sale of shrimp and resulted in clearing the backlog of product from the supply chain. Such a sale allows for movement of product and puts many in the industry back to work.”
Since August of 2021 when Hurricane Ida came ashore in the heart of Louisiana’s seafood production, the grounds shrimpers use have been disrupted, their equipment and homes damaged, and they have lost out on time on the water. There was one bright spot, a storm bring an abundance of shrimp; Ida was no exception.
“This has been one of the biggest and best white shrimp seasons on record,” said Andrew Blanchard of the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force and a member of the Louisiana Fishing Community Recovery Coalition. “We have plenty of shrimp and the boats could sure use this program to level the playing field against imports.”
The Shrimp Task Force chair says boats have been catching large shrimp both in the inland waters and the Gulf and early in the season were making good money on the big shrimp. As the season progressed, and shrimp became smaller, some boats are tied to the docks unsure of their ability to turn a profit with dropping dock prices.
“Our local producers are struggling with demand from distributors and struggling to keep up with foreign prices,” said Congressmen Jerry Carl, who represents the Mobile area. Photo: Jerry Carl
“Sometimes you got take care of your own people. It is critical the USDA puts this program back in place,” he said. “During the last two years the program has helped to stabilize the price of domestic shrimp, and put money into the pockets of fishermen hard hit by tragedy after tragedy. To my knowledge there has been no negative feedback on the program.”
Congressmen Jerry Carl, who represents the Mobile, AL area, says that the program has been beneficial for both shrimp fishermen and processors across the Gulf.
“Our local producers are struggling with demand from distributors and struggling to keep up with foreign prices,” he told Gulf Seafood News. “I’m proud to work with Rep. Graves to urge Secretary Vilsack to continue supporting Gulf shrimpers and processors by purchasing shrimp to be used in schools and other nutrition programs for low-income individuals. This is a great way to support the Gulf shrimping industry and provide the best shrimp money can buy to those in need.”
According to Rep. Graves, “In recent years domestic shrimpers have been undercut by illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing that occurs overseas. Foreign shrimpers are scorning human rights and fishing laws to produce more shrimp—at a lower cost—than our honest shrimping families. They are dumping these shrimp into our markets and competing against domestic shrimp. This is further exacerbated with worker shortages, supply chain issues on necessities as simple as ice, and unchecked inflation pushing gas prices to unprecedented highs.”
Since 2020, $58 million has been secured for the Louisiana seafood community from fishery disaster funds and another $200 million allocated. Photo: CNN
Since 2020, $58 million has been secured for the Louisiana seafood community from fishery disaster funds and another $200 million allocated. An additional $120 million was secured from other various funding streams to support both fresh and saltwater industries, including nearly $50 million in domestic shrimp purchases from the USDA.
“We have also been working hard to get fishery disaster funds for our seafood providers and reform the process to get that money in their hands quicker,” said the Louisiana Congressman. “To further support our seafood community, we received the largest U.S. infrastructure grant in 2020—$135 million for LA-1 elevation— which helps connect some of our biggest fishing communities with the rest of the state.”
“It’s great to see our Gulf Congressmen support domestic seafood products, especially shrimp which is one of our higher volume items,” said Harlon Pearce, Louisiana Fishing Community Recovery Coalition chair. “This is an important program because it not only helps fishermen, processors and other in the industry, but also it gives those who are often less fortunate the opportunity to experience the wonderful taste of domestic wild-caught shrimp, and benefit from their nutritional value. This is a win-win for everybody, and we hope in the future it can be expanded to other Gulf and domestic seafood.”
I’m a 60 year old Commercial fisherman fished my whole life, read the article and see that there was a total of 428 million allocated from 2020 till now to help the fishermen but I haven’t received any of that money so who did it help?
They helped the processors, not the fishermen! Without the fishermen there would be no need for processors!