At present, the middlemen in the fresh shrimp markets in the 

 producing area are local wholesalers or cooperatives. Out-of-town buyers 

 still appear in the local landing places, especially whenever shrimp are 

 scarce. Some wholesalers have agreements with fishermen providing that 

 they will take the entire catch at current market prj.ces, but only in 

 rare instances are these agreements exclusive in character. 



Frozen Shrimp 



In areas where the frozen product predominates, shrimp are 

 unloaded from the boat at the shrimp plant where they are headed, washed, 

 and often graded, and trucked from there to the freezer. Most coastal 

 freezers have limited storage capacity. As soon as practicable the 

 shrimp are moved to a cold storage warehouse located near the consumer 

 market. 



Where the shrimp are marketed in breaded form, the freezing 

 operation is frequently of an auxiliary nature. The breaded shrimp are 

 often stored in public cold storage facilities. 



The distribution channels for frozen shrimp are similar to 

 those for fresh shrimp. In contrast to fresh shrimp, however, larger 

 quantities of frozen shrimp aj:e handled by wholesale food brokers than 

 are sold directly by title-holding wholesalers or on commission. 



Large grocery store or restaurant chains often by-pass food 

 brokers and negotiate directly with shrimp processors or wholesalers. 

 The volume of business handled by these chains warrants buying in this 

 manner. 



Canned Shrimp 



Shrimp used in canning originate either with independent or 

 cannery-owned boats. In the former case, the shrimp frequently are sold 

 by the receiving plant to an assembling wholesaler or directly to the 

 cannery . 



Canned shrimp, as a rule, are distributed in the same manner 

 as other cajined products are distributed, i.e., through the middlemen 

 supplying the retail grocery trade, secondary wholesalers, brokers, 

 and chain organizations. 



Canneries buy all grades of shrimp. The lower counts of 

 shrimp bring a better price when they are marketed fresh or frozen 

 and ordinarily axe not processed by the canneries. 



