In a 13 December report, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has reported that consumers in the U.S. are routinely misinformed about whether the shrimp they are served at restaurants has been wild-caught domestically or farmed in other countries.
“The record indicates that seafood restaurants frequently advertise their selections with pictures of U.S. Gulf Coast shrimp boats and nets, suggesting that they serve domestic wild-caught shrimp, but, nevertheless, serve only farmed imported shrimp and that distributor and retailer customers discourage U.S. processors from labeling their shrimp as ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ to differentiate it from imported shrimp,” the report said.
This manufactured confusion has created unfair competition between a lower-priced product and a higher-priced product, from which restaurants benefit, according to the report.
That confusion includes restaurants putting up imagery of boats and nets suggesting that their shrimp is wild-caught, and restaurants avoid trouble by failing to explicitly label the product’s origins. As the report noted, if consumers are unable to distinguish between these two products, they are not able to even consider paying a premium for wild-caught shrimp.
The report also detailed the damage this has done to the domestic shrimp industry. Shrimp landings in the Gulf of Mexico and in the South Atlantic dropped to historic lows in 2024, falling 46 percent and 75 percent below the locations’ respective historical averages.
The misinformation around retail shrimp labeling was listed as one of a number of reasons for the ITC’s decision to stand by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s antidumping (AD) duty for shrimp imports from Indonesia and countervailing duty (CVD) rates for shrimp imports from India, Ecuador, and Vietnam.
