Texas shrimp farmers battle disease, inflations, imports

By Associated Press

When a rare virus hit his shrimp ponds this year, Fritz Jaenike feared the disease might wipe out the crop as it did in many South Texas Farms in 1995.

His crop seems to have recovered thanks to a costly restocking with virus-resistant larvae. But other problems have farmers in one of the top shrimp-producing states feeling uneasy as harvest begins: Foreign competition, low prices, labor problems and high fuel costs.

"Its too early to tell what kind of an impact it's going to have," Jaenike said of the virus as tractor-pulled pipes sucked mature shrimp from the ponds and onto tanks of ice. "It was going to be a tough year anyway, but this will make it tougher."

In hopes of offsetting record low prices, coastal farms overstocked by about 10 percent this year, said Ya-Sheng Juan, aquaculture liaison and inspector for Texas Parks and Wildlife. But enough shrimp died from th virus to cancel the extra stock out. Ya-Sheng predicted about 4,000 pounds of shrimp per acre of pond this year, an average output.

"They're doing OK, not very good," he said. "Not as good as they expected."

The United States provides 10 percent of the world shrimp market, and much of that is from Texas. One-third of the shrimp caught in the Gulf of Mexico is caught by Texas shrimpers, and 70 percent of U.S. shrimp farms are in Texas.

Market prices have dropped from about $3 a pound to $2 a pound sincew 2000, thanks to a doubling of production from China and Vietnam, a dip in sales, and the rejection by Europe and Canada of antibiotic-treated shrimp.

Many shrimpers were hoping last week's proposed tariffs on foreign shrimp would help. The Bush administration suggested duties of up to 68 percent for Brazilian exporters, and smaller ones for Indian, Thai, and Ecuadorean businesses. The U.S. Commerce Department is expected to approve the proposal within a few months.

Wilma Anderson, executive director of the Texas Shrimp Association, was upbeat about the tariffs.

"I think it will help the shrimp industry tremendously. I'm counting on it, anyway," she said of the tariffs. "But it won't happen overnight."

But some say the market has already been flooded in anticipation of the restrictions - which industry representatives wanted to be much higher.

"There's enough shrimp built up to supply every restaurant and supermarket in America for a year and a half," Jaenike said. "It seemed like the tariffs weren't very high. I don't believe it's going to increase our prices that much."

Shrimpers who head out into the Gulf of Mexico have even more concerns.

"Shrimp prices haven't come up. And production? With the product we've seen so far, the shrimp's been small and that hasn't helped," shrimp boat owner Carlton Reyes said.

Heavy spring rains probably diluted the salty bay waters that brown shrimp favor for spawning, said James Nance of the National Marine Fisheries Service in Galveston. Nance predicted a slow season off the coast of Texas, a better season near Louisiana.

"Galveston Bay has been a fairly good predictor of what's happening off Texas," Nance, said. The annual June monitoring of the Galveston Bay catch showed low numbers.

In Port Isabel, some shrimpers are hoping they'll make payroll and their boat payments.

"The banks don't want the boats; that's a disaster," Reyes said.

A trawler burns about 350 gallons of fuel a night. Two years ago, diesel was less than 80 cents a gallon. Fuel prices are now about $1.20 a gallon. As the harvesting season kicked off this month, about one-third of the shrimp boats never left the docks.

Owners had come to rely on Mexican crew members, and new regulations against foreign shrimpers mean small crews are often inexperienced. Some owners are laying off crews.

"We have a number of vessels coming in and dropping of crew headers," Reyes said of the workers who behead shrimp before they are frozen." They weren't catching enough to keep the headers busy."