Gulf Coast Shrimpers See Hope in Trump’s Tariffs

In December, Frank Parker updated himself to a larger shrimp boat.

For the Mississippi Shrimper, it was a good trade with an older fisherman who was trying to resize. But the driving force behind the acquisition of a boat that would allow Mr. Parker to remain in deeper waters for two weeks at a time was the return of President Trump to the White House and his promise to tax almost all imports.

When Mr. Trump followed that promise and met rates all over the world this week, Mr. Parker, 52 years old, said he seemed “like the sun that came out of the tunnel”.

Years had passed since he had even heard a fragment of optimism for the shrimp industry, in which his family has been since his ancestors moved to Biloxi, Miss., In 1842

But the rates of Mr. Trump, Mr. Parker and many other shrimp said last week, could do a lot to cancel perhaps their greatest financial threat: the economic, the economic threat Speed ​​shrimp raised Flood of the American market. Now, the greatest shrimp exporters, such as Vietnam, Indonesia and India, face some of the largest rates.

In recent years, the average price of the headless prawns has Fallen image for $ 1.50 per pound For some dimensions of shrimp along the gulf coast – while the costs of diesel and the management of a company have climbed.

“I left the prawns out there because I didn’t want to give them for $ 1 a kilo,” said Parker of the recent travels of Ghlimping. He added: “I don’t see him worsen. Now we are at the bottom of the barrel.”

And, in Alaska, there are concerns for Raw noise from China on Salmon, Pollock and other fish Exported there, as well as for the highest expenses that some fishermen could face the treatment abroad.

But American prawns generally do not export their catches. Along the coast of the Gulf, their industry has been decimated by pollution, a series of hurricanes and what they say is an economic and lower product of Asian and other countries, often disappeared as domestic prawns. (The genetic test has repeatedly found Shrimp from abroad, labeled fraudulently as a product of the coast of the Gulf, in restaurants and seaside fruit events.)

“It is almost like downloading the bags of Louis Vuitton cheap on the market – imagines that the country is flooded with imitations,” said Ryan Bradley, a former Shrimper and current executive director of Mississippi Commercial Fisheres United, an industrial group. “Put a rate on it will increase the price on these economic imitations to level the playing field.”

More than 90 percent of the millions of prawns of shrimp consumed every year in the United States it is importedWith a majority from India, Ecuador, Indonesia and Vietnam. The International Commercial Commercial Commercial of the United States already voted to allow the Department of Commerce to penalize Those countries in November and all four now face further rates under Mr. Trump.

A federal analysis of the initial data shows that there has been a 38 % decrease in the revenue for prawns captured from 2022 to 2023, to $ 204 million from $ 329 million, even if capture It remained quite consistent. This means that the price of the prawns has dropped a few dollars per pound, even if the fuel costs remain high and the number of shrimp has has fallen in recent years.

While there are some international prawns farms that operate in a transparent and ethical way, American prawns indicate the news of exploited workers AND Schiavo and juvenile work practicesin addition to the use of chemicals e antibiotics.

American prawns must also meet higher environmental standards, including the mandatory use of Turtle excluded devices To prevent the species of extinction or other wild animals from being captured by a fishing boat. There has also been a ten-year freezing of the next year-jutted new shrimp permits as an environmental precaution, set by Council for the management of the fishing of the Gulf of Mexico.

For consumers, shrimp affirm, the most important reason to protect domestic caught prawns is that cultivated prawns do not have the same flavor. The prawns of the accused Gulf coast have a strip of flavor that can only come from a life in the sea, they say, with a deeper color and a crunchy bite.

“We hope this is a good swing oscillation,” said Justin Versaggi, a fourth generation Shrimper based in Tampa, of the new rates. “We want to be able to bring our product to the market and get the right price.”

“The fear I have is that once our sector has disappeared, it has disappeared forever,” he added. “This is the part that gives me chills, because there is no reason for this – we have a higher product.”

THE Southern Shrimp AllianceAn industrial group formed to counter imports and their allies have long requested rates, as well as legislation that would require an accurate labeling from where the prawns come from.

Separated from the rates, the prawns also hope that the so -called healthy movements of Reta America supported by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the health and human services of Mr. Trump, will push more consumers to ask for information on where, exactly, their shrimp come from and to give priority to local capture.

Some shrimp have promptly recognized the wide uncertainty about the rates of Mr. Trump and their impact. Politics could make other aspects of their work and their lives more difficult – if the cost of their equipment increases, for example, or the aluminum and steel necessary to repair their boats become more expensive.

But with the cost of fuel and materials already weighed down their activities, some consider it a useful risk.

“If I can make money, I will take care of it,” said ACY Cooper, 64, of Venice, the., Which is the president of the Louisiana Shrimp Association. “We are willing to pay a little more for the equipment if we do the money to pay it.”

The possibility of being able to get more money for shrimp could be an anchor of financial salvation for the prawns and fish markets along the coast of the Gulf of Florida, where hurricane Ian devastated the means of subsistence in 2022.

Grant Erickson, whose family managed Erickson & Jensen Seafood for seven decades, spent $ 1 million just to reconstruct his piers on the island of San Carlos, between Fort Myers Beach and Fort Myers. Two of his eight boats are not yet completely repaired, while three have been completely destroyed by Ian.

“Sometimes we are not even profitable,” he said. “It was very difficult.”

Like the remaining few shrimp and the related activities in the area, it hopes that the rates will increase the sales of a local delicacy: the pink shrimp, which are sweet and delicate. He and others in the local prawn sector saw longtime friends and workers leave the field in the aftermath of the Hurricane.

With a smaller local socket after the storm, Dana Gala, the Big Daddy seafood manager in Fort Myers Beach, no longer uses an industrial ranking machine. Instead, he orders the capture by hand, dropping the medium, large shrimp and jumbo in red colane on the market that his grandparents opened after a wider company was destroyed by Ian.

“Has it amazed, is it a dying breed?,“He said, a tattoo of octopus tentacles surrounding his elbow. It is part of the fifth generation of his family to join the Gambera sector, working under his grandmother, Christine.” Will I have to restart a family tradition? “

It is optimistic that the answer is no. The impact of the rates, he said: “It may not be in the next two months or even years, but I know that in the long term it will help him a lot”.