Shrimpers are still active in the Gulf of Mexico, but without the business they had a year ago.
Shrimpers in Port of Brownsville, Texas only have a handful of shrimp buyers to work with, and just under a month ago, the buyers had bad news to deliver.
“The problem is, a lot of the buyers came back and said, ‘hey, we’re not buying any shrimp at this time because a lot of the restaurants have simply stopped buying shrimp,: Andrea Hance, the Executive Director of the Texas Shrimp Association, said.
A shrimping supervisor at the Port of Brownsville says that his group is still very busy. According to Jose Leyva, “Right now as it is, the price of shrimp, I just heard a gentleman tell me yesterday that they paid him $2.47 a pound for shrimp. He was getting $5.00 at the beginning of the year, and so, restaurants being closed is definitely hurting us.”
Leyva added that many shrimpers thought this was going to be a promising year and that the economy is hurting the industry more than the virus has. The Texas Shrimp Association estimates it could be another two to four months before shrimp prices start rebounding.