Patriotic Prawns, a new program out of Mississippi, is hoping to educate the public about where the shrimp they’re consuming at restaurants comes from – but said they are finding that many of the state’s restaurant owners are unenthusiastic about committing to serve 100 percent U.S.-sourced shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico.
After a December 2024 study showed that many Mississippi restaurants were serving imported shrimp to unsuspecting customers, the owner of a local shrimp processing and delivery company decided to take action. Bethany Fayard, Vice President of Ocean Springs Seafood, started the Patriotic Prawns program, which entitles participants who agree to random freezer inspections and reviews of shrimp processing records to a sticker that advertises that their business sells 100 percent U.S. sourced shrimp.
“You would think that after all the hubbub and the news [coverage of the program], people would be banging on our door,” said Fayard. Fayard said that hasn't been her experience, however, since she began offering the program for free to her customers.
“We’ve got four restaurants that have put the stickers up. The problem is that there aren’t hardly any restaurants that are just serving domestic,” Fayard told SeafoodSource.
Fayard said that she was surprised to learn how many of her customers, who buy Gulf shrimp from her, want to at least retain the option of serving some imported shrimp, and were thus unwilling to commit to the program.
“Finding people that are using 100 percent domestic shrimp, and that are willing to put a sticker on their window, is nearly impossible,” she said.
Patriot Prawns participant Rhonda Villers, owner of Ocean Springs restaurant Martha’s Tea Room, put it in an interview with local news WLOX, “this is a shrimper place.” The location of many coastal restaurants alone, she implied, is enough to make some customers assume that they are eating local shrimp.
“There’s no law against using imported shrimp,” Fayard pointed out. If a program participant did put up the Patriotic Prawns sticker and then later sold imported shrimp, however, that would constitute fraud. “The second that he puts that sticker on his window [and sells imported shrimp,] he’s breaking the law,” said Fayard. She has found that most Mississippi business owners “want the flexibility to keep selling imports if they want to and not to have to advertise it if they’re not.”
The December report, by SeaD Consulting, which claimed to have uncovered “widespread misrepresentation” of imported shrimp in Mississippi, highlighted the allegedly misleading and deceptive practices that some local businesses were using, including labeling shrimp sourced from Argentina as “royal red” – a species local to the Gulf of Mexico – and charging the premium prices associated with local shrimp when they were actually serving cheaper imported products.
Though Fayard’s program hasn’t found wide acceptance yet, there is growing concern …
