China ban may be too late to rescue US shrimpers

ORIENTAL, N.C. -- A rash of safety scares that caused some Chinese imports to be pulled off store shelves -- including poisoned toothpaste, lead-tainted toys , and contaminated pet food -- has spiked demand for products made in the United States. But in the case of shrimp , America's favorite seafood, there is not enough to go around.

A staggering 92 percent of shrimp eaten in the United States is imported; last year, 8 percent of it, about 151 million pounds, came from China .

Last month, federal food safety officials included shrimp from China on a short list of seafood they are banning until it no longer tests positive for unapproved chemicals and cancer-causing agents. That should be good news for the US shrimp fisheries, pushed to the brink of extinction by low-priced imports. But even if import restrictions result in higher prices for domestic shrimp, success remains a long shot for the country's remaining shrimp fishermen. And for some, any price increases will arrive too late.

In this small town at the southern edge of Pamlico Sound , second-generation fisherman Sherrill Styron is reluctantly planning to retire and convert the 2-acre hub for his business, Garland F. Fulcher Seafood Co. , into condominiums.

It is a dramatic shift for Styron, who just turned 65 and is the mayor of Oriental . Fifteen years ago, he said, it would have been "crazy" to think the waterfront property where he rose from crew member to business owner would become condos. "But there's not any money to be made here anymore," Styron said.

The trickle of imports from China exploded after Beijing joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 , a move that lifted most barriers to the US market. China has become the world's leading seafood supplier, and last year was the third-largest seafood exporter to the United States, supplying $1.9 billion in fish and shellfish. Since cheaper imports began flooding the US market, many North Carolina fishermen have abandoned shrimp , a trend being replicated elsewhere across the nation.

"We've, in the last five to 10 years, lost one-third of our fish houses," said Sean McKeon , president of the North Carolina Fisheries Association Inc. , a trade association that includes Styron on its board. "Gone. Off the map. Sayonara. Condominiums."

Last year, the average American ate a record 4.4 pounds of shrimp, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service . Twenty-five years ago, 60 percent of shrimp eaten by Americans was imported. In addition to China, almost all shrimp now comes from Thailand , Indonesia , Ecuador, and other countries.

In 2006, international suppliers exported 1.74 billion pounds of shrimp to the United States. That dwarfs domestic production of 182 million pounds in 2006 , according to the National Marine Fisheries Service. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration division, startled by the trend, backs pending legislation that would open new areas offshore for aquaculture operations to take root, an attempt to bolster domestic capacity to produce such farm-raised seafood as black cod , tuna, and oysters .

Frozen shrimp from China arrives in the United States in a variety of forms, including easy to peel or mostly free of the shell, for quicker use. Consumers like the convenience, while domestic fishermen worry about the price.

"A restaurant can buy a pound of peeled and de veined shrimp, ready to drop in the pot, for $4 to $5 a pound," said Louis Daniel , director of the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries . "Fresh, local shrimp -- in order for the fisherman to make any money -- they're going to be in the $7.99 to $10 a pound range. There is a big price gap."

In Oriental, Styron has reduced his fleet from nine to seven boats harvesting shrimp , scallops, and flounder . He splits any profits with his crews. He also buys shrimp from boats owned by others. Flipping through a receipt book last week , he said that in late July 2006 he paid $4 per pound for mid- sized shrimp that numbered 21 to 25 per pound. After Labor Day , prices began dropping, ultimately slumping to $3 per pound on Oct. 25 .

Styron can remember when he paid crews up to $6 per pound for shrimp. A $2 per pound dip in prices can amount to $10,000 in lost profit for the six-day week that crews typically spend trawling for shrimp, he said.

He stepped away from his desk and directed a visitor to an outside deck with its view of the looming shell of a waterfront processing facility that another fisherman started building when prices were good, but has left unfinished due to the current bust.

A few hours away in Wanchese , for the first time in four years, Billy Carl Tillett, 56, is outfitting his 85-foot Gallant Fox to scour Pamlico Sound in search of shrimp. Tillett's return to shrimping is based on a hope and a prayer. The odds are against the second-generation fisherman, and he knows it.

Rock-bottom shrimp prices and the high cost of the diesel fuel used to power boats such as Tillett's have made crews tougher to recruit. More fishermen are turning to the certainty of work on tug boats or merchant marine vessels.

Beachgoers and anglers headed to North Carolina's famed Outer Banks this summer are likely to savor the flavor of shrimp caught in the wild that Tillett and the region's hundreds of fisherman corral in vast nets. But elsewhere across the country, backyard barbecue grills are being filled with inexpensive, imported shrimp.

That leaves Tillett with a sobering calculus: Can his company, Moon Tillett Fish Co. Inc. , squeak by, accepting early season losses when shrimp are tiny in the hopes of seeing larger profits at the height of summer, when plumper shrimp command higher prices?

"It's just a cross-your-fingers thing," he said.

A longer-term fix, said Styron, would be imposing a 25-cent per pound duty on exporters, with proceeds invested in the domestic shrimp industry to avert its extinction. Tillett's 33-year-old son, Ryan, favors setting a minimum price for imported shrimp -- at a level that guarantees US fishermen can earn a decent living.

But Carlos Sanchez, a buyer at one of the nation's top seafood importers, doubts such changes will trump the reality of supply and demand. "There is always the hope, if you slow down the imports or you put duties on the imports, it will allow the domestic producers to raise their prices," said Sanchez , who works for Beaver Street Fisheries . "But there is really not enough domestic production to supply the domestic consumption."

Diedtra Henderson can be reached at dhenderson@globe.com.