Operations of the Port Isabel Branch of the association can 

 be described as follows: The Branch has about 50 members and an equal 

 number of boats and is an importaiit factor in the Bi-ownsvllle-Port 

 Isabel area. 



All sales are made by the Louisiana office. Members of the 

 co-op must unload with the co-op unless their shrimp are landed at a 

 port outside of the Bro-imsvi lie -Port Isabel area. Shrimp aire unloaded 

 at the co-op's docks and stored in the boat owner's name. The boat 

 owner is paid the Brownsville union price less processing and freezing 

 costs. The co-op maintains its own freezing facilities and has a storage 

 capacity of up to half a million pounds. It also does its own consumer 

 packaging. Profits at the end of the year are redistributed in the form 

 of patronage dividends. The co-op offers obvious advantages in the 

 marketing process, in tliat it has facilities for holding shrimp and, 

 because of large voliame, is in a position to save its members the broker- 

 age fees that are normally charged the independent boatman. 



Other membership advantages are the availability of facilities 

 for machinery maintenance and net repair. For these services the co-op 

 charges cost plus 8 percent. 



An examination of the accounting statements of the T\,dn City 

 Fishermen's Cooperative Association indicates that the members of the 

 cooperative realized on the average 53*9 cents (including patronage 

 dividend) per pound of packaged frozen shrimp sold for them by the 

 cooperative in 195^. Fishermen not associated with this cooperative 

 who fished from the same ports, averaged 51.3 cents per pound for such 

 products in the same year, according to the accounting records for a 

 small sample of these operations examined by the Federal Trade Commis- 

 sion. The cooperative claims that the higher average prices realized 

 by its membership can be explained by the larger size of the shrimp 

 talien by its membership fleet than those taken by non-members. The 

 cooperative claims its members throw undersized shrimp back into the 

 sea. 



A somewhat smaller co-op, the Gulf King Shrimp Exchange, is 

 located in Aransas Pass. It came into being as the result of a merger 

 of the Texas Fishermen's Co-op and the Texas Gulf Trawlers' Association. 

 Historically, the need for a cooperative in Aransas Pass arose out of 

 the dual function of the fish houses which at one time were both title- 

 taking dealers and agents for the boat owner. The spread between the 

 price paid to the fisherman and that received by the fish house ranged 

 between 10 and 20 cents per pound. The cooperative forced the fish 

 house out of its agency position. 



Essentially, the cooperative acts in a manner identical with 

 that of the other Aransas Pass fish houses, having no freezing or storage 

 facilities and no highly developed sales organization. Profits are de- 

 rived only from processing activities and these, rather than being re- 

 distributed in the form of dividends, are passed on in lowered processing 

 fees to the fisheimen. 



Ill 



