High diesel prices, imports hammer Louisiana shrimpers

Record high diesel prices and competition from cheap, imported shrimp are hitting Louisiana shrimpers in the wallet and driving some of them out of business.

Acy Cooper Jr. is a shrimper in Plaquemines Parish and the president of the Louisiana Shrimp Association. He told The Center Square that shrimpers are having a “hell of a time” dealing with diesel prices and cheap imports that make their business unaffordable.

“Here in Louisiana, you can make a little bit of a living if you catch a few shrimp. We’re in between seasons now and once the shrimp starts slowing up, you can’t continue working at that price. A lot of folks are going to try to keep working, but once they see they can’t overcome it,” Cooper said of high fuel prices, “they’re going to shut down.”

According to the American Automobile Association, diesel is $5.30 per gallon in Louisiana, up 82.8% from a year ago, when the price per gallon was $2.90.

The Pelican State, like the rest of the Gulf Coast, has two shrimp seasons for brown shrimp (usually May to July) and white shrimp (mid-August into December).

The Louisiana shrimp industry accounts for 29% of all U.S. shrimp caught, according to data from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Division.

Louisiana’s shrimp harvest, according to data from NOAA, has been on a downward trend since 2005.

According to NOAA data, the shrimp harvest in Louisiana has declined from more than 145 million pounds in 2000 to only 65 million pounds in 2020, a decline of 54.85%. Even removing the pandemic year in 2020, the decline from 2000 to 2019 (83.3 million pounds) is a precipitous 42.7%.

Major hurricanes that made landfall in Louisiana such as Katrina and Rita in 2005, Laura in 2020 and Ida in 2021 have played a role in the declining harvests, along with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

In the case of foreign shrimp imports, increased demand for the crustaceans is driving up imports. Shrimpers like Cooper say that heavily subsidized shrimp industries like India’s are “dumping” their product in the U.S. market. Since the U.S. shrimp industry isn’t subsidized like those overseas, they find it hard to compete since prices are lowered.

The U.S. Trade Administration is proposing lifting sanctions in April against a group of foreign shrimp export-ers for alleged dumping of shrimp into the U.S. as part of a five-year sunset of the sanctions.

NOAA data shows that after importing 326,074 metric tons of shrimp in 2021, the U.S. has imported 287,470 metric tons so far in 2022.

According to data from the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, shrimp exports to the United States hit the $1 billion in sales mark for the first time in 2021. According to the VMARD, the U.S. purchases 28% of Vietnam’s exported shrimp. Those purchases were up 21% over 2020.

Cooper also says that a lot of those imported shrimp have illegal levels of antibiotics and steroids and that U.S. officials aren’t enforcing the laws designed to protect consumers from contaminated shrimp.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration published 74 bans on seafood importers, with five shrimp importers from Bangladesh and India blocked because they contained sanctioned antibiotics. The FDA also sanctioned five importers from Ecuador, India and Indonesia over shrimp that tested positive for salmonella bacteria and were filthy.

With all of the headwinds, Cooper says shrimpers – many of whom have worked Louisiana waters for genera-tions – are leaving the industry. He said once those boats are docked for the last time, they aren’t going back out again.

“You can’t just go buy a boat, and go on down work and think you’re gonna be a fisherman. Don’t work like that. No, no,” Cooper said. “ My dad taught me and his dad taught him.

“And you know, once you lose a vessel and you lose somebody that’s been working the waters for years and years and they don’t come back, you don’t just replace that when you need more shrimp.”