An organizing committee exploring options for potentially creating a new US shrimp marketing program is winnowing its alternatives, George Chamberlain, president of the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA), told IntraFish.
At GAA's Global Outlook for Aquaculture Leadership (GOAL) conference in Guayaquil, Ecuador, in September, nearly 60 shrimp industry leaders met to initiate discussions on the need for a shrimp marketing council and how such a group could be created.
Since then, a group of 15 shrimp producers, buyers and other stakeholders who volunteered to serve on an organizing committee for the project have been meeting, most recently during the Boston seafood show in March.
"At the last meeting in Boston, there still was not a clear idea which option is the best course of action, said Chamberlain.
Options
At the September GOAL meeting, those present discussed two possible broad options -- one voluntary, one mandatory -- that could form the overall structure for a marketing program.
The voluntary approach would marshal the financial resources of companies willing to support a marketing effort, but it has a significant drawback: so-called “free riders,” or those that don’t voluntarily pay into the program yet potentially benefit from its success. Such an approach could also run into anti-trust issues, and Chamberlain said at the Boston meeting obstacles identified as part of any voluntary program dampened enthusiasm for the approach. It doesn't, however, take the option off the table, said Chamberlain. "There's no reduced interest, but one by one options are falling off the table," he said.
The mandatory approach, on the other hand, would follow the path of 22 other agricultural commodities that have set up marketing boards through the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The move would create a mandatory penny-per-pound assessment on shrimp imported into the United States. The marketing council would be governed by a board of directors and the effort would be focused on the US market.
Establishing such a program through the USDA, however, can be difficult and time consuming, but Chamberlain said some initial findings suggest creating a mandatory program might be less expensive and less onerous to set up than first thought. Committee members are meeting later this month to further explore the mandatory option.
Any marketing council created seeks to raise $15 million (€13.2 million) annually – an assessment of a penny per pound on the 1.5 billion pounds of shrimp imported into the United States.
Increasing production in Asia, Ecuador and elsewhere has been driving a softening in global shrimp prices, which, in part, is fueling producers' interest in building demand in the US market, one of the world's top shrimp markets.
Still, the creation of a new marketing initiative is far from a foregone conclusion. "Everyone agrees we need marketing, but everyone agrees someone else should pay for it," said Chamberlain.
