The U.S. Department of Agriculture is asking wild-catch U.S. shrimp producers to bid on 229,800 cases of shrimp under its Section 32 program.
Bids are due by 20 September, and the accepted bids will be announced by midnight on 28 September, the agency said in a notice.
Suppliers must make deliveries of the peeled and deveined shrimp as well as shell-on, tail-on shrimp between January and March 2022.
Earlier this year, the USDA made its biggest seafood purchase ever — USD 70.9 million (EUR 60 million) in fish and shrimp products — under its Section 32 program, which buys surplus goods for nutritional programs.
Federal lawmakers from seafood-producing states worked to increase funding for the program in several COVID-19 relief bills to provide an additional market for fishermen who struggled to sell products during the pandemic, USDA said in a press release.
“The impacts of COVID-19 reverberated from our farms to our oceans. U.S. fisheries and the American seafood industry were dealt a heavy blow,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. “These healthy, nutritious food purchases will benefit food banks and non-profits helping those struggling with food hardship as the Biden administration works to get the economy back on track for American families.”
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