The importing of cheap shrimp is threatening the local shrimping industry and may endanger the health of consumers, who can ask for the local product.
Published June 28, 2004
Shrimp is the "fruit of the sea," the single-minded Bubba Blue explained in the movie Forrest Gump. "You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it." Increasingly, however, you cannot find shrimp that was caught in the ocean by an American shrimper. Nearly 90 percent of shrimp bought at a restaurant or store is imported, and most of that is farm-raised.
Frozen in blocks and shipped by the ton from Asia or South America, shrimp imports have decimated the domestic shrimping industry - halving the offshore fleet in the Gulf of Mexico over the past decade and putting many Florida shrimpers on the brink of ruin. How ironic it would be if Floridians, surrounded by water and often within sight of fishing docks, couldn't buy a shrimp that had recently spent time in the sea.
The threat is real. "We only have 12 percent of the market," said Sal Versaggi, president of Versaggi Shrimp Corp. in Tampa. "How much more can you lose and still have significance?"
Shrimpers are fighting back. An association of Southern shrimpers is seeking tariffs on imported shrimp in a trade action against six foreign countries. The industry is also hoping to uphold a "country of origin label" law in Congress. In Florida, shrimpers have taken the initiative with an education campaign called "Florida Shrimp - Wild & Wonderful," which encourages consumers to ask for the local product.
Shrimpers are footing the bill for the campaign, which is being coordinated by a division of the state Department of Agriculture. It notes the historic significance of the shrimping industry, its contribution to the state's economy (more than 4,000 jobs and $97-million) and the difference in quality and taste of Florida shrimp. That last point should motivate consumers.
Some farm-raised imports have been found to contain harmful contaminants, particularly chloramphenicol, an antibiotic in shrimp feed that is a potential human carcinogen. Shrimpers say much of the dumping in the U.S. market came about because foreign shrimp could not meet the higher purity standards set by the European Union and ended up here. Unfortunately, Americans are not well served by the Food and Drug Administration, whose duty it is to inspect imported seafood.
The FDA tests less than 2 percent of seafood coming into the country and even when it finds a problem, the agency is slow to act, according to a report earlier this year by the Government Accounting Office. The GAO found that "it took an average of 348 days for FDA to alert port-of-entry personnel about serious safety problems identified at six foreign firms."
One way consumers could protect themselves is by knowing the origin of the shrimp they buy, and a federal law would make such labeling mandatory beginning in October. But powerful forces - including food producers and retail grocers - are trying to kill the law, fearing it would make it more difficult to sell foreign products. Under pressure, Congress did delay mandatory labeling of imported meat and produce, but seafood labeling survived because influential Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, whose state is a major seafood producer, has been able to fight off the threat.
As for the trade case, a preliminary decision should be made later this summer. Some interests - including seafood distributors, restaurants and food processors - want to keep the cheap imported shrimp coming and warn that jobs will be lost if tariffs raise the price. Trade issues aside, Florida residents who are concerned about the threat to their shrimping industry can act. They can tell their members of Congress that consumers have a right to know what they are eating and to uphold the labeling law. If they are willing to pay more for the real thing, they can ask for wild Florida shrimp at the market or restaurant. That should make the final decision more pleasurable, whether they want coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp salad . . .
