Is this the last generation of Louisiana shrimpers? 'This was the worst year I’ve ever had.'
“Half the people in this city don't even know they’re eating imported shrimp, they buy a po-boy down in the Quarter and there's a 9/10 chance that's imported shrimp.”
By MARIE FAZIO | Staff writerDec 22, 2023
On the last day of inside waters shrimp season in Louisiana, Doran Caufield, right, and Erison Dardar, weigh and ice down freshly caught shrimp at Bundy's Seafood in Lafitte, La. Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. (Staff Photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune) STAFF PHOTO BY DAVID GRUNFELD▲
On the last day of the shrimping season, the Billie Joe puttered into the Bundy’s Seafood dock in Lafitte and off stepped Larry Alexie wearing a camouflage jacket and waders.
The lifelong shrimper watched closely as the dividends of his three days on the water were vacuumed onto a conveyor belt, weighed and sorted into bins with ice. A handful of hopeful pelicans, drawn to the pungent smell of 12,000 pounds of shrimp, floated nearby.
Despite a season so bountiful producers have had a hard time keeping up with cleaning and peeling, rock-bottom dockside prices have made it difficult for shrimpers to make ends meet.
Many rely on any profits from the end of the inshore shrimping season in December until the docks begin buying again in May.
“That ain’t going to happen this year, we ain’t going to make it until May,” said Alexie, 71. “I don't know what I'm gonna do, I'm raising three great-grandkids right now, and it's gonna be tough. Real tough.”
Herbert Canselo, a 20-year employee at Bundy’s Seafood in Lafitte, vacuums freshly caught shrimp from a shrimp boat on Dec. 13. The opening dates of the shrimp season will be a topic for Thursday’s monthly Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meeting. Biologists will provide data on the movement and growth of brown shrimp along our coast before the commission settles on opening dates. STAFF FILE PHOTO BY DAVID GRUNFELD▲
Louisiana shrimpers for decades have decried steadily declining prices at docks, despite high retail prices and higher costs of gas and supplies. They’ve marched to Baton Rouge and lobbied lawmakers, but many feel forgotten, beholden to international trade market conditions.
“From bad to worse to terrible, this was the worst year I’ve ever had in my life,” Alexie said.
Global shrimponomics
At a chain grocery store less than 30 miles from the docks, Gulf-caught shrimp was selling for $5.99 per pound.“It just doesn’t add up,” said Holden Fabre, 26, a fifth-generation shrimper who returned to Bundy’s dock on Wednesday around sunrise from an overnight trip, his last of the season before he turns to crabbing.
He sold his catch for 50 cents per pound.
“We’re a dying breed — they always say we’re the last generation because there’s no one here to help us,” he said.
On the last day of inside waters shrimp season in Louisiana, Doran Caufield, left, and Erison Dardar, weigh and ice down freshly caught shrimp at Bundy's Seafood in Lafitte, La. Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. (Staff Photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune) STAFF PHOTO BY DAVID GRUNFELD▲
According to a University of Louisiana at Lafayette 2020 report, the state’s seafood industry produces $2.4 billion annually. Despite supplying the country with more shrimp than anywhere else on the Gulf Coast, Louisiana holds a tiny share of shrimp consumption across the U.S.
The U.S. imported nearly two billion pounds of shrimp in 2022, up from 250 million pounds in 1980, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That number was 200 million pounds higher in 2022 than in 2020, the American Shrimp Processors Association says.
Most of it is sourced from Ecuador, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, with little testing oversight. Shrimpers and lawmakers say the influx has forced historically low prices for domestically caught shrimp and a disappearing profit margin for fishermen.
Meanwhile, preliminary data tracked by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that prices this year were lower than they have been over the past five years, across most size categories. Allison Garrett, a spokesperson for NOAA, said the agency predicts the final 2023 prices will remain lower than they were in 2022, the lowest price since 2009.
On the last day of inside waters shrimp season in Louisiana, Doran Caufield prepares freshly caught shrimp for shipping at Bundy's Seafood in Lafitte, La. Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. (Staff Photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune) STAFF PHOTO BY DAVID GRUNFELD▲
In October, the American Shrimp Processors Association filed a petition asking the FDA to impose tariffs on imported shrimp from Ecuador, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, alleging shrimp farmers in those countries receive subsidies from their governments that allow them to sell at below-market prices.
A previous petition led to anti-dumping tariffs on imported shrimp from Brazil, India, China, Vietnam, Thailand and Ecuador, some of which have been repealed. Though the volume of shrimp imports has gone up despite the existing tariffs, without the tariffs in place the situation would be worse, said Edward T. Hayes, a New Orleans-based attorney who filed the suit.
Herbert Canselo, a 20 year employee at Bundy's Seafood in Lafitte, La., vacuums freshly caught shrimp from a shrimp boat, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. (Staff Photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune)▲
The market also worsened for local shrimpers over the pandemic, when retailers began buying more imported shrimp to cut costs, Hayes said.
“Half the people in this city don't even know they’re eating imported shrimp, they buy a po-boy down in the Quarter and there's a 9/10 chance that's imported shrimp because they own 90% of the market,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Louisiana Restaurant Association declined to comment on the price of shrimp, but said the organization encourages its members to "consider serving Louisiana seafood products whenever possible."
Restaurants have been required to note whether they serve imported shrimp on menus since 2019, with a $50 fine for first offense, but enforcement is lax.
In May, dozens of shrimpers gathered on the steps of the capitol in Baton Rouge to rally lawmakers about the state of the industry. Holding signs that read “Slow the flow of imports” and “Feeding families for generations,” they pleaded with lawmakers to step in.A few months later, Gov. John Bel Edwards wrote to President Joe Biden and said family shrimpers were “on the verge of extinction.” He asked for support for a quota on imported shrimp and said he would request a federal fisheries disaster declaration from the Department of Commerce — which was rejected in November.
“Between what our shrimpers are paid for their product and the increase in costs associated with maintaining boats and fuel necessary for their livelihoods, Louisiana shrimpers are at a critical turning point in making the decision to pass down the family business to the next generation or to close up shop,” the letter said.
Grant Bundy and his dog, Bella, wait for the last shrimp boat to arrive on the last day of inside waters shrimp season at his shrimp dock at Buddy's Seafood in Lafitte, La. Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. (Staff Photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune)▲
Several bills have been introduced at the federal level this year, including one that would direct funds generated from anti-dumping tariffs to parts of the country affected by imports through grants.
But shrimpers like Kelly Bruce, whose family runs JNK Shrimping in Lafitte, say years of promises have left them skeptical the situation will ever change.
After four runs when the season opened this year, Bruce stopped going out months before the close of the season because it was too expensive and they "refused to go back out and be in the hole." They sold a skiff and are down to one family boat that stays tied up.
On a crisp morning a few weeks before the close of the season, nearly every slip on Ditcharo Seafood in Buras, a small fishing town in Plaquemines Parish, was occupied by a boat, their towering masts slung with empty green shrimping nets.
A few years ago, the dock may have been nearly cleared out with boats out in Gulf, said Sandy Nguyen, executive director of Coastal Communities Consulting, a nonprofit founded after the BP oil spill. Many hung their nets early this season, unable to justify the slim profit margins.
“We’re starving, losing everything,” said Rondey Andry, 40, a lifelong shrimper who hasn’t bought a new pair of work jeans in four years and can barely shell out for work boots. To save money he lives on his boat, which he keeps docked at Ditchero’s dock. Stalled by a breakdown and low prices, he hasn’t gone out for two months.
A shrimp boat heads in on the last day of inside waters shrimp season at Bundy's Seafood in Lafitte, La. Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. (Staff Photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune)▲
“The price of shrimp has more than cut in half twice or three times and the price of diesel is up,” he said. “We can’t afford to go out, can’t afford the fuel, can’t afford to break down.”
Dock owners, who get 20 cents per pound regardless of shrimp prices, feel the pinch, too. If the fishermen don’t go out, they have no way to make money, said Grant Bundy, who has operated Bundy Docks in Lafitte for the last 15 years, a business started in the 1960s by his grandfather.
“This business is out of hand, I’ve been here 49 years but this is the worst year,” said Mike Berthalot, manager of Ditchero’s dock. “We brought a record-breaking number of pounds of shrimp this year and I ain’t ever seen a price that low in my life, never ever.”
Berthalot predicted more for sale signs on boats this winter, but scarcity of buyers.
“I think it’s too late to do anything now, the damage is done,” he said. “[The shrimpers] don’t know which way to turn, there ain’t no way to turn.”
