Commercial Fisheries May Face Bankruptcy If Pandemic Continues
As restaurants close and seafood sales plummet, thousands of commercial fisheries across the U.S. are at risk of bankruptcy. Pandemic relief plans are helpful in the short term, but for some fisheries, temporary relief may not be enough.
Kenny Melanson, CEO of Northern Wind in New Bedford, Massachusetts, worries that an abundance of product left unsold could mean a drop in future seafood prices. Northern Wind normally sells about 15 million pounds of scallops and 6 million pounds of ahi tuna a year, but restaurant and hotel closures have pushed those numbers down dramatically. Seafood prices have also fallen because Americans spend almost twice as much on seafood at restaurants than at home. Lobster has dropped from an average of $9 per pound to $2 a pound, says Keith Decker, chief executive of New Bedford fishing company Blue Harvest. Likewise, consumers rarely eat oysters or crab at home, so current demand for oysters and crab have sunk to record lows. Even fish popular among home cooks have seen market prices plummet. The wholesale value of flounder has gone from $4 per pound down to just 50 cents.
Around the nation’s shorelines, boats are tied up dockside, throwing fisherman into joblessness and gutting coastal communities. Some industry veterans say their $300 million portion of the federal $2 trillion economic relief package is not going to cover the damage that COVID-19 leaves behind on the $100 billion seafood industry. “While $300 million is a large amount of money,” explains Robert Vanasse, executive director of the industry advocacy group Saving Seafood, “when you consider the number of commercial fishermen and employees in fishery-related businesses, it will not go far enough…And it does not compare to the $9.5 billion allocated for livestock, specialty crops, and other parts of the food system.”
Food Shortages Caused by COVID-19 May Continue
From farm to fork, the American food supply chain is feeling the pinch of the coronavirus. Three main forces have been at work: consumers stockpiling food, suppliers closing or curtailing businesses, and grocery stores struggling to keep up with demand. As meat processors such as Smithfield, Tyson, Cargill and JBS USA continue to shut down plants or furlough workers, meat industry analysts predict temporary shortages for products such as pork. Thankfully, millions of pounds of meat remain in cold storage, so experts don’t foresee long-term food shortages.
However, in the near future, consumers may have difficultly finding the particular products they are used to buying. For instance, Mississippi-based chicken processor, Sanderson Farms, has considered selling only whole chickens instead of cut-up parts to reduce labor and risk of illness at its facilities. Disruptions may also occur in beef and pork supplies, forcing consumers to get creative with different cuts of meat.
At grocery stores, consumers can also do their part to curtail the spread of COVID-19. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union urges shoppers to adhere to social distancing recommendations, wear masks, and touch grocery store items as little as possible to reduce the risk of illness among grocery store workers.
