To the supplies derived from the domestic catch must be added 

 some 68.6 million pounds of shrimp imports, the majority of v/hich was 

 imported as packaged frozen headless. Conversely, somewhat more than 

 h.l million pounds of exported manufactured products must he subtracted 

 before the net supply available for domestic consumption can be 

 determined. 



TRENDS IN UTILIZATION 



In 1930 more than 50 percent of total supply went into manu- 

 facture of the canned product. By 1956 only about 7 percent of total 

 supply was utilized in this manner. The production of frozen shrimp 

 was relatively insignificant at the beginning of this period, whereas 

 in 1956 shrimp freezers took about 60 percent of the total supply. 

 Frozen breaded shrimp alone, a new product introduced only a few years 

 ago, today utilizes about 20 percent. 



PROCESSING FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION 



Product Yields 



Technological progress in most industries can be expected to 

 bring about Improvements in product yields over a period of time . In 

 the shrimp industry, the net effect of advances in processing techniques 

 on product yields is somewhat difficult to assess. 



The majority of processing operations today are performed 

 by hand labor. In canning, the use of machine operations has been more 

 conspicuous, and processing economies have been achieved. The latest 

 peeling and deveining equipment, in addition to cutting down the manual 

 labor required for operations, makes it possible to process very small 

 shrimp formerly not used for commercial purposes. Product yields, how- 

 ever, have not improved as much as expected as the result of the replace- 

 ment of manual by machine labor. 



2iiO 



