In seafood marketing, it's who you know 



Between Ronald Cockfield's trawler 

 and your plate, shrimp are ensnared in 

 a process called seafood marketing. A 

 complex business based largely on 

 telephone deals and intricate personal 

 relationships, seafood marketing 

 transfers seafood commodities like 

 shrimp from the dock to the table. 



As part of their Sea Grant study of 

 shrimping in North Carolina, John 

 Maiolo and John Bort, two East 

 Carolina University sociologists, ex- 

 amined the marketing structure that 

 surrounds shrimp. 



The process begins before the shrim- 

 per leaves the dock. To keep fishermen 

 hauling in their catch and themselves 

 in a supply of shrimp, many dealers of- 

 fer fishermen docking space, fuel, ice, 

 repair facilities, fishing and boat sup- 

 plies and occasionally a provision of 

 credit. The exact mix of services may 

 vary from dealer to dealer and is 

 dependent, to some extent, on the size 

 of the dealer's operation, Maiolo says. 



After docking the catch, the shrim- 

 per is paid by the pound for his haul. 

 The price paid by the dealers in an 

 area is usually the same or varies by 

 only a few cents, Maiolo and Bort 

 report. Many shrimpers see this 

 across-the-board price as collusion be- 

 tween the dealers. 



But dealers see it another way. They 

 maintain dealers are selling to the 

 same markets so they are getting 

 similar prices for the shrimp. 



At the same time, dealers told 

 Maiolo and Bort that uniform pricing 

 kept the marketing business on the 

 even keel it needed to survive. Dealers 

 cannot afford to have fishermen 

 shifting their supplies between dealers 

 for better prices because varying sup- 

 plies for the dealer could mean incom- 

 plete orders for his customers. 



Once dealers pay for the shrimp, the 

 crustaceans are ready for processing. 

 In North Carolina processing means 

 heading the shrimp, sorting them by 

 count size and packing them in boxes 

 for shipping. The heading is done 

 manually, usually by older women or, 

 in many cases, the wives of the fisher- 

 men who bring in the catch. They take 

 the shrimp between their thumb and 

 index finger and pinch its head off. The 

 "headers" are usually paid by the 

 pounds of shrimp headed, with smaller 

 shrimp bringing more money per 



pound. Among the larger dealers, 

 processing may include freezing the 

 shrimp. The frozen shrimp are held at 

 the processing plant until prices rise. 



After packing the shrimp, dealers 

 are ready to market their product. A 

 dealer can sell shrimp directly to retail 

 customers like restaurant and seafood 

 markets or to wholesalers or 

 processors, usually breaders. 



A number of factors influences how 

 a dealer markets his shrimp. Almost all 

 dealers market other fish besides 

 shrimp, usually agreeing to supply a 

 customer with his needs for crabs, 

 clams and oysters, in addition to 

 shrimp. 



Maiolo and Bort report that 

 marketing patterns are generally 

 related to shrimp size. Larger shrimp 

 tend to be shipped to the breaders in 

 Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. 

 Breaders pay high prices for large 

 shrimp, but their prices drop off for 

 smaller shrimp. 



Medium-sized shrimp (30 to 45 

 count) are an attractive buy for almost 

 everyone. Restaurant buyers es- 

 pecially like this size shrimp because 

 they can fill customer's plates with 

 more shrimp for the money. Dealers 



Photo by Steve Wilson 



sell medium-sized shrimp to retail and 

 wholesale buyers in and outside the 

 state. (A 1974 Sea Grant research pro- 

 ject by John Summey reported that 

 55.5 percent of the shrimp caught in 

 North Carolina were sold in the state.) 



Small shrimp glut local markets in 

 large quantities during the summer. 

 During these periods of abundant 

 landings local prices drop, making 

 shrimp a more economical buy for local 

 people. Maiolo and Bort report prices 

 from breaders for small shrimp are 

 very low, so selling shrimp locally is of- 

 ten a profitable alternative for dealers. 



But no matter whom the dealer sells 

 to, the selling-and-buying interaction 

 is usually carried out on a personal 

 basis. Confidence in the honesty and 

 integrity of the man with whom you're 

 dealing is an important factor in the 

 marketing business, Maiolo says. 

 When thousands of dollars of perishable 

 seafood are committed during a 

 telephone conversation, trust in the 

 person on the other end of the line is 

 vital. 



Marketing, though complex, boils 

 down to the simple concept of knowing 

 people — the people who harvest 

 seafood and the people who sell it. 



A Wrightsville Beach fish market sells shrimp, whole and headed 



