| Marketing
a truly domestic industry
by Anthony C. Ostrowski, USMSFP Director
One early result of the antidumping
suit forwarded by the Southern Shrimp Alliance
(SSA) was the funding of state marketing programs
to promote the quality of domestically harvested
shrimp. While the funding was targeted out of
concerns for the wild catch industry, some of
these programs have recognized the importance
of also supporting the domestic shrimp farming
industry. Clearly, US consumer demands for shrimp
cannot be met entirely by the domestic harvest
industry, which can supply only about 10% of
the US market. There also appears to be implied
support of this concept based on comments made
by Eddie Gordon, President of the SSA, at the
Annual Shrimp Forum held at the Boston Seafood
Show last March (see IB April 2004 issue). Some
marketing programs have done a good job at promoting
the virtues of domestic farmed and wild-caught
shrimp, but there is a tendency to bias the wild
catch as might be expected from the perspective
of the suit. Individual farmers and shrimp farming
associations should be encouraged to contact
these programs to ensure the farming industry
remains profiled in their marketing efforts as
well.
In this issue of Industry Briefs,
we explore three current marketing campaigns
for shrimp
in the US. Our feature article by D’Anne
Stites of the Texas program is the most aggresive
in promoting both domestic wild-harvested and
farmed shrimp. In Florida, the “Wild & Wonderful” campaign
focuses on the wild catch, but it is not inconceivable
that this effort can easily incorporate domestically
farmed shrimp as wonderful also. South Carolina
has begun a study testing the feasibility of
integrating locally harvested shrimp into a major
tourism campaign. Truly, the issue must be to
encourage the support of a domestic shrimp industry
for either to survive in such a competitive market.
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