U.S. shrimpers struggle to compete as cheap foreign imports flood domestic market

Shem Creek, South Carolina — Off South Carolina's coast, shrimper Rocky Magwood has a jumbo problem: plummeting prices for his catch.

"It's worse right now than we've ever seen," Magwood told CBS News. "…I mean, people are dropping like flies out of this business." 

The cause is cheap shrimp imported from Asia, grown in pond farms and often subsidized by foreign governments. It's idled many of this state's roughly 300 shrimpers.

"I would love to be out here at least six days a week," Magwood said.

Instead, he's shrimping only two or three days a week because, as he explains, there's "no market."

Last year, local shrimpers received $5.73 per pound for their haul, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This year, it's down to $3.39 per pound, a decrease of just over 40%, which shrimpers say barely covers their costs.

Patrick Runey's seafood restaurant, T.W. Graham & Co. in McClellanville, South Carolina, serves only locally caught shrimp. He pays more because he says local shrimp tastes better. 

According to Runey, his restaurant could go with a cheaper alternative, "but that's not what people want."

What many U.S. shrimpers do want is a tariff on foreign competition. In November, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that it would launch an investigation into whether antidumping and countervailing duties should be imposed on fish imported from certain countries, including Ecuador, Indonesia, India and Vietnam.

Magwood is afraid for the next generation of shrimpers.

"I have a son that's five right now," Magwood said. "He won't be able to do this the way it's going right now. There's no way…This is just the facts." 

In:
• South Carolina
• Economy
• Fishing Boat

Mark Strassmann

Mark Strassmann has been a CBS News correspondent since January 2001 and is based in the Atlanta bureau.