New England's predominance in at-home 

 lobster consumption reflects the difliculties and 

 high cost of shipping live lobster from the pro- 

 ducing areas. Tradition, of course, insures 

 a strong local market for limited supplies of 

 northern lobster. It should be noted, however, 

 that the survey also revealed that home con- 

 sumption of lobsters represents only 40 ^r of 

 the total quantity consumed in the United 

 States. Thus, with restaurant consumption 

 taken into account, the regional distribution 

 may not favor the New England area quite so 

 heavily. Nonetheless, the important inference 

 to be drawn from the at-home consumption dis- 

 tribution is that out-of-area retailers are re- 

 luctant to assume the risks of marketing live 

 lobsters, which are highly perishable, outside 

 their normal environment. Consequently, in 

 the event that lobster production should be 

 increased, and this is a possibility with deep- 

 sea lobster fishing, improved ways of handling 

 lobsters will be needed to enhance retailers' dis- 

 positions toward marketing the product. 



Shrimp 



Shrimp products, which are marketed mostly 

 in frozen form, have a fairly even distribution 

 among the regions of the United States (Fig- 

 ure 11). With a single exception, no region's 



i of tctBl 



U.S. consuaptloi 



D 



* or total 

 U.S. populAtloi 



HountBip Fteltic 



Figure 11. — Regional distribution of shrimp consump- 

 tion (at home) and population, 1969. 



per capita consumption of shrimp eaten at home 

 varies more than 32 ""r from the national aver- 

 age. Four regions are above average in per 

 capita consumption; one is approximately av- 

 erage; and four are below average. 



The Middle Atlantic States account for 24% 

 of the total at-home consumption and rank first 

 in this respect. Per capita consumption in the 

 Middle Atlantic States is about 29 /r above the 

 national average. The South Atlantic States 

 follow in total consumption with 19% of the 

 total, and the East North Central States are 

 third with 15^/ of the total. 



In the South Atlantic States the per capita 

 consumption is about ZS^'r above the U.S. av- 

 erage, whereas in the East North Central States 

 the per capita consumption is 26% below the 

 national average. Shrimp are also consumed 

 in quantity in the West South Central States. 

 In that area, per capita consumption tops the 

 national average by 50^ f. 



Heavy shrimp consumption in the South At- 

 lantic and South Central States is indicative 

 of the tendency for seafood products to be con- 

 sumed largely in their area of catch. Shrimp, 

 though, lend themselves to preservation and 

 packaging techniques that assure quality main- 

 tenance in long-distance shipping. Thus, there 

 is an effective nationwide marketing network 

 for shrimp products. The Mountain area 

 States, for example, have a high per capita rate 

 of consumption, although they are located at 

 relatively long distances from the producing 

 areas. 



The universality of shrimp consumption in- 

 dicates little need for concentrated market de- 

 velopment strategies. By the same token, the 

 firmly entrenched competitive position of 

 shrimp throughout the regions of the United 

 States is a factor to be taken into account in 

 the marketing of other seafoods. In any event, 

 the geographic distribution pattern of shrimp 

 consumption illustrates the favorable possibil- 

 ities for seafoods that are suitably processed 

 and packaged to undergo long-distance distri- 

 bution. 



Scallops 



Scallops, like shrimp, adapt well to freezing 

 techniques and can be marketed with consistent 

 quality in distant markets. However, the geo- 

 graphic distribution of at-home consumption 

 indicates a heavy preference for scallops in the 

 New England and Middle Atlantic regions and 

 a low rate of consumption in the Central and 



