‘These guys are working twice as hard as they used to work for half the money’: Gulf Coast shrimpers see Trump tariffs as a lifeline for the US shrimp industry — but is it?

Shrimpers for Trump

Unlike the lobster fishers of Maine, who rely on trade with Canada as their largest export market, shrimpers sell the majority of their catch domestically. Foreign competition has turned the price per pound into a race to the bottom.

“I call it the ‘chickenization’ of shrimp,’” said Jeremy Zirlott, a shrimper in Alabama with three boats, and a Southern Shrimp Alliance board member. “Shrimp used to be a luxury item; now it’s gotten to where it’s one of the cheapest proteins.”

"We've been dying for the last 20 years, and the last four years have really been tough," said Acy Cooper, the president of the Louisiana Shrimp Association. "Then Trump comes in — that's why we voted for him. We want change. We can't live like this anymore."

The industry’s crisis is one that shrimpers feel the US government has, up to now, compounded.

In early March, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., called attention to the fact that US taxpayer dollars are being used to fund the shrimping industry in other countries. As reported by the Southern Shrimp Alliance, private shrimp producers and exporters in Ecuador have received at least $195 million in development funding since the millennium.

Funding has also been sent to India, Indonesia, Vietnam, among other countries. The Alliance contends that this has led to a “global oversupply that has driven wholesale shrimp prices to historic lows during a time of inflation for almost all other commodity prices.”

Sen. Cassidy has called on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to prevent taxpayer dollars from funding foreign shrimp aquaculture. Advocates for the industry say that this foreign supply has been instrumental in gutting the domestic shrimp prices. NOAA Fisheries reported that the total value of U.S. shrimpers’ catch was $522 million in 2021 — and only $268 million in 2023, and remaining near this level in 2024.

Congressman Clay Higgins, R-La., is also calling attention to the issue and on the Trump administration to impose tariffs of up to 100% on foreign shrimp and crawfish imports.

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Shrimpers vs. consumers

"The public has to be willing to pay more for the domestic product we produce," said Zirlott. He anticipates that tariffs will provide some relief, but wants federal funding redirected into the local industry so that it can survive in the long term.

"I don't think it's going to solve all of our problems for sure, but it's a step in the right direction," he said. Public support is crucial to encourage young people to join the fishery that is quickly witnessing a “graying of the fleet.”

By contrast, Maine’s governor expressed worry that tariffs on the fishery will cause major trading partners like Canada to impose retaliatory tariffs. Some products, such as lobster, cross the border for processing as Maine has 15 lobster processing plants to Canada’s 240, meaning Maine’s lobstermen would suffer in turn.

The National Fisheries Institute has also warned that tariffs on seafood and other items could cause inflation.

Some also worry that as prices for foreign imports and domestic shrimp rise, consumers are just as likely to change their tastes as they are to adjust to a higher cost for seafood they expect to be cheap.

John Sackton, a seafood industry analyst, reported to NBC that a recent survey showed consumers are more likely to simply cut back on spending for groceries and restaurants when the economy dips, meaning tariffs may not ultimately bring Gulf Coast shrimpers the relief they’re desperately seeking.

Gulf Coast shrimpers, however, rely on their fellow Americans to do the right thing.

“Today’s demand for shrimp is met at a massive human, environmental, and public health cost,” said said Williams, the executive director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “When we outsource our seafood production to industries that use forced labor and environmental shortcuts, we’re making a choice about the kind of world we want to support.”