Floribbean Fare - A culinary fusion of the Caribbean and Deep SouthA culinary fusion of the Caribbean and Deep South

Although this problem affects Florida’s Shrimpers, it also affects the entire shrimp industry as a whole across the nation. I’m talking about the imported Blue Tiger Shrimp we all see at the local grocery store anymore these days. Usually frozen in easy to grab plastic bags in the freezer section or thawed out and marketed as “Jumbo Blue Tiger Shrimp”.

As some of you know, my day job consists of selling commercial marine insurance to owners of shrimp boats in Florida and the rest of the states surrounding the Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic Ocean. I’ve witnessed first hand what these imports are doing to them, their families and their livelihoods.

For a number of years now, eager and greedy seafood distributors have realized that they can easily import farm raised Blue Tiger Shrimp from countries like Vietnam, Ecuador, Thailand and India for literally a few cents on the dollar and resell them back to their normal customers (i.e, grocery stores, white linen restaurants, family restaurants) for generally the same price they have been charging had they bought the shrimp locally from fishermen. The only difference is the profit margin has substantially increased for the distributors while the price remains the same for consumers like you and me. Local shrimp prices from distributors to a commercial shrimp boat operator used to be around $1.20 - $2.70 per pound depending if the shrimp still had their heads on and what size they were. Imported shrimp can be bought for far lower usually around $0.40 - $1.20 per pound. Obviously, with the greater profit margin distributors are turning their commercial shrimper suppliers away for foreign farm raised alternatives.

Fuel is another major concern as is for the rest of the nation right now. There was a time when diesel fuel ran at about $0.70 - $1.35 gallon for shrimp boat operators. That’s changed to around $2.80 - $3.20 gallon. Now some people would say, “So, that’s what gas is costing me to run my car!” Maybe so, but a car doesn’t take 10,000 - 25,000 gallons to fill up. According to one of my clients and to make matters worse, it’s costing the average shrimper 2 - 3 gallons of fuel to catch and process 1 lb. of shrimp.

Quickly one realizes that our American shrimpers aren’t making ends meet. Paying roughly $3.00/gallon for fuel and collecting only $0.70/lb of shrimp plus having to pay your crew, captain and other expenses like insurance usually leaves a loss for each trip. Boatowners have gotten to the point where tieing the boat up is better than operating it and losing money.

A few years ago a lot of the fishermen banded together to fight the cheap importation of farm raised shrimp saying it was flooding the market with a cheaply produced foreign made product and ultimately costing Americans their jobs. But what resulted was only a temporary duty levied by the U.S. Government on farmed shrimp producing countries. These countries only increased their price slightly or just moved the farms to other countries that did not have the levy imposed. Ultimately, the levy was repealed in 2007 after continuous fighting by American seafood distributors.

Needless to say the fight continues.

Although I could go on and on about this subject, my goal here was not to dissect the problem and get on my soapbox about a solution. The problem is way more complicated than what I have outlined here but you have a general idea what is going on with our shrimpers. The bottom line is make certain you know what you’re buying at stores and, if possible, ask for Wild Florida Shrimp. You’ll be thankful from a taste standpoint and help the local economy in the process.

Speaking of taste tomorrow I’ll discuss the difference in flavor between a wild Florida shrimp and a farm raised Blue Tiger. I’ll also explain the differences in the 3 main species of shrimp found around Florida and the Gulf and where you can buy them. Ultimately, we’ll get into some of my favorite shrimp recipes such as BBQ shrimp, Fried Coconut Shrimp and Orange Glazed Shrimp just to name a few.