tion by the oyster industry which is poorly organized 

 and made up of many small companies. 



Although the quality of oysters produced and 

 marketed as a refrigerated, raw, shucked product is 

 generally good at the time the oysters leave the plant, 

 the delay in the distribution, especially to more dis- 

 tant areas, results in a significant decrease in quality. 



Distribution to the Rocky Mountain and Mid- 

 West states from the Pacific coast is more difficult 

 now because Railway Express, which utilized rapid 

 passenger trains, has become less available as trains 

 are being discontinued because of the general trend 

 toward air travel. Transportation of oysters by air to 

 many of these locations is not economical because of 

 the small volume to be shipped. All of this has re- 

 sulted in curtailment of oyster markets in a large 

 portion of the United States. 



Another factor is the competition for the fresh- 

 oyster market from East Coast or Gulf of Mexico, 

 the American oysters, Crassostrea vir^inica 

 Gmelin. Much of the production in these areas is 

 from public beds which results in a low price when 

 oysters are abundant, and a high price when oysters 

 are scarce. 



Oyster production on the Atlantic coast was gen- 

 erally low for several years following the major mass 

 mortalities of oysters caused by the Haplosporidian 

 Minchinnia nelsoni which began in Delaware Bay in 

 1957 and spread to Chesapeake Bay during the fol- 

 lowing 2 or 3 yr. During this period the demand for 

 Pacific oysters expanded and prices increased dur- 

 ing the years 1960-61 and again between 1966 and 

 1967. More recently, production of low-priced oys- 

 ters on the East Coast has increased, causing a re- 

 duction in market demand for Pacific oysters. Mar- 

 ket price of oysters on the Pacific coast has remained 

 static for the past 4 yr even though costs generally 



Table 1. — Wholesale price of shucked Pacific oysters, 

 Cntssostreii fii^as. in Seattle, Wash., cost index and oys- 

 ter price adjusted to 1958 base. 



Figure 4. — Pacific oyster. Crassostrea f;i.'!".'>. production and 

 cost index. 



have increased during this period, as indicated by 

 Table 1 and Figure 4. 



The price per gallon of oysters shown in Table 1 is 

 somewhat misleading since this is the price paid by 

 wholesalers for shucked oysters delivered to Seattle, 

 Wash., for the fresh-oyster trade. During recent 

 years when supplies have exceeded the market de- 

 mand for fresh oysters, it has been necessary to 

 divert a part of the production into canned oysters, 

 smoked oysters, or oyster stew. The price of oysters 

 for a processed product must necessarily be lower 

 than the price for fresh oysters. Therefore, the aver- 

 age price received by many growers was signifi- 

 cantly less than that indicated on Table 1. 



Efficient growers have reduced production during 

 this period and now use only their best land. This 

 reduces their costs by increasing the yield per unit 

 area and by reducing the time required for a crop to 

 reach marketable size. 



Another factor which has increased costs has been 

 the lack of local setting during the past ?< yr. Locally 

 produced seed is generally less costly than imported 

 seed, especially for those growers who are able to 

 collect their own seed from natural reproduction. 

 Also, the price of imported seed has increased re- 

 cently and many growers hesitate to invest in seed 

 because of the squeeze between increasing costs of 

 production and limited demand at static prices. 



91 



