How National Tariffs May Be The Answer For A Local Industry

Shrimp is always in demand at the beach

Bon Secour may not have national name recognition by the millions of visitors to Alabama's coast, but most of those who eat during their visit have a link to the small shrimping haven. In the past few years a focus has been placed on the using locally sourced seafood for visitors to the coast and also in area grocery outlets. Many suppliers believe this weeks tariff action could have changed the game.

President Donald Trump rolled out his tariff regime on Wednesday, also known as "Liberation Day," by raising tariffs, including 34% more on imports from China, 46% on Vietnam and 32% on Taiwan.

While the world reacted, people in Alabama's coastal community are hopeful the move could save a dying industry.

Billy Parks, the owner of Billy's Seafood in Bon Secour, said his business has struggled for nearly two decades.

"We've had it terrible," Parks said.

The open-air seafood market has sold Gulf of America shrimp fresh off boats since 1975. Before that time, Parks' father and grandfather operated Wallace Seafood.

At one time, Parks said there were 100 shrimp boats in the Bon Secour River. Now, there are only a handful.

While he hasn't given up yet, Parks said he has seen others forced to close due to the influence of foreign imports on pricing.

"We've had a lot of influx of the imported, farm-raised Asian shrimp coming in and has pretty much demolished the shrimp seafood market as far as the local shrimp sales," Parks explained. "So, when the fuel price started spiking real high, the shrimp prices started going way down, then it just put a lot of boats out of business."

"The sad part about it is all the old timers, most all the old timers that shrimped back in those days, they either lost their boats, or gave them away, or sold them for a little bit of nothing," Parks added.

While many people worry about paying more for wedding dresses and video games, Parks sees a glimmer of hope.

"We've got great anticipation on what's going to happen in the future," Parks said.

"Hopefully, our new president will help us get it going in the right direction for a change because it's been long overdue," he added.

Billy's Seafood is focused on selling directly to customers, either in person or by shipping. While he does sell to the local restaurant, The Galley, he said his offerings are more aimed at the consumer. He said many local restaurants purchase imports because of the lower prices.

Parks said local, fresh shrimp has become a unique experience that is hard to find.

"The local shrimp tastes better than the ones that they get from overseas because those have been frozen for months," Parks said. "Most of them are caught in a pond and that's not a clean pond from what I understand, but over 90% of shrimp sold in the United States is from other counties."

"We can honestly say that all the shrimp that we sell is local," he added.

This article was originally posted in 1819 News by Erica Thomas

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