The USDA announces it will buy 30 million dollars’ worth of Gulf of Mexico shrimp to help stabilize the market and avoid a total price collapse due to excess product.
Louisiana Shrimp Association President Acy Cooper says they’ve been hammered this year due to the closure of restaurants and the purchase is a big help.
“We started out with some of the lowest prices we have ever seen in the first quarter of the season and then in the spring season we started some smaller shrimp around 35 cents a pound so we have been taking a big lick,” says Cooper.
Cooper says the decision should help cut down on the glut of product that is currently on the market.
“We’re at about 100 million pounds a year so you know you take one third out of it and so it ought to raise our prices up. You know the more shrimp you can get out of the system the better we are,” says Cooper.
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