PORT ARTHUR, Texas — The U.S. Department of Commerce has granted a request to begin investigating antidumping and countervailing duty investigations into imported shrimp from four countries.
The American Shrimp Processors Association, or ASPA, made the request and announced that the Department of Commerce would be investigating shrimp imports from Ecuador, India, Indonesia and Vietnam according to a November 2023 news release.
The Commerce Department initiated investigations based on support from both shrimp processors and shrimp boats, according to the ASPA news release.
The ASPA and the Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee, or AHSTAC, made submissions in support of the investigation, according to the news release.
Support forms were submitted by the ASPA from more than 850 shrimp boats in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas the release said.
Members of the ASPA account for 85% of domestic shrimp production, according to the release.
The Department of Commerce is now set to determine whether imported shrimp from the four countries is being dumped or illegally subsidized the release said.
Preliminary results are expected in 2024.
"Lots of counties in Texas including Matagorda and Cameron Parish have declared disaster for fisheries. So have places in Louisiana and Florida," Nikki Fitzgerald, of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, said in September. "This is not only a Texas issue, but a gulf and national issue," she said.
In September 2023 Eric Kyle Kimball, president of the Port Arthur Shrimpers Association told 12News he had yet to take his boat out for the season that began on July 16. He tells us now that his boat, "The Seahorse" has only gone out once this season.
“Boats are tied up, they can't afford it. The ones that do go out a lot of them are having to pay out of the pockets. I see more boats tied up this year than ever before, during the peak part of shrimp season when they have shrimp,” said Eric.
The decreasing price per pound of local brown shrimp is impacting lives of shrimpers all along the Gulf Coast.
"They don't hardly make a living enough to feed their families. So they go and find work in other industries," Eric said.
"I mean the U.S. shrimper at this point is becoming extinct," Eric's wife, Trischa Kimball told 12News.
Shrimp prices in September were being driven down from $3.75/pound to .80 to .90/pound due to imports from around the globe Kimball said at the time.
The flooding of imported shrimp into the U.S. market is leaving American shrimpers struggling to make a living.
"The government should do more to protect the shrimpers as an industry, 20% of the state's shrimp is in Jefferson County," Trischa said.
After paying for fuel and deck hands, Southeast Texas shrimpers can't break even Eric said in September.
"The problem is that there is so much imports, that they have flooded this country to where we don't have enough people to eat what's being imported. Therefore, they don't really want what we have," Fitzgerald said in September.