European diners value the delicate northern shrimp, Pandalus borealis, known here as “Maine shrimp,” and they prefer to have them available cooked, peeled and ready to eat, says John Norton, owner of Cozy Harbor Seafood. Norton, who has dealt in live whole lobster and groundfish since 1986 and processed frozen lobster since 1993, has been working to capture a corner of that European market and thus further diversify his business. “The Maine seafood industry has a tradition of dealing in multiple products, he notes. “If you deal in just one segment of the business, you’re probably not going to survive.”
Norton entered the processed (cooked, cleaned and frozen) European shrimp market last year after joining Governor Baldacci on a trade mission to the United Kingdom. He went to sell his frozen lobsters, but heard from wholesale customers that what they really wanted was frozen Northern shrimp, not frozen lobster. “After the trade mission I made the decision to restart our cooked and peeled line,” he says.
Norton, like many other Maine processors, had shut down that phase of his business and had gotten rid of the equipment in 2000 because the catch was declining precipitously. Now that scientists say stocks are recovering, he is risking a lot on the accuracy of their predictions. Last year, he invested $450,000 in re-equipping his plant for shrimp processing and this year, is spending another $400,000.
According to the Maine Department of Marine Resources, the largest shrimp haul recorded in Maine was in 1969, with a total of over 24 million pounds landed. In 1998, that figure dropped to 7 million pounds; 1999, three million; and in 2000, up slightly to four million. The season was cut back to 28 days in 2001, and the catch was just under two million pounds. The next year, with 38 days, was worse, with just 846,000 pounds landed, and in 2003, with 40 days, the catch was up again to 3.5 million pounds. This year’s season, 70 days, is nearly double the number of days in last year’s season.
Norton learned a lot during his return to shrimp processing last year, when he sold approximately $2 million worth of processed shrimp, which he figures was close to one-half the Maine catch. Most important, he says, was realizing that to be competitive in a market where United States players must pay a 20 percent tariff (as opposed to 10 percent or no tariff at all for other countries) he would have to improve the quality of his product. This season he has spent the additional $400,000 on technology specific to shrimp processing, including grading and glazing equipment, nitrogen tunnels and freezers. He bought some from Denmark and the rest in the U.S. The investment, he says is his, without any aid from grants.
Quality in the European market, he explained, is measured by factors such as size, color, texture and the percentage of whole shrimp with full tails left on after processing. In 2005, he hopes to sell close to a million pounds of frozen product, which translates to using approximately three million pounds of raw shrimp. This is still merely a niche in the European processing scene, which is dominated by Canada, Norway, Iceland and Greenland, with a total of about 800 million pounds. Norton will pay market rate to suppliers, both individual boats and wharves, which he has lined up along the coast from Massachusetts to the Canadian border. His resources include four buying stations set up by Cozy Harbor to buy lobsters – on Long Island, Chebeague Island, Portland Wharf and Tenants Harbor.
Norton made six trips to Europe during the past year to promote his product and develop markets, an investment of time and money he notes is a measure of his strong commitment to this new venture. Still, he says, he is faced with a balancing act to make sure he has the supply he needs for sales and a price that is right on both ends. “It’s extremely complicated and fairly risky,” he admits.
Although the Maine shrimp season began in December, Norton didn’t plan to start processing until the first week of January because he needed time at the end of the lobster season to change over to shrimp. Once up and running, the processing is amazingly efficient. Shrimp is shelled, frozen, packaged and ready to go just 10 minutes from the time it goes into the cooker. However, the success of this venture depends on many variables, including if the weather is favorable for fishing, if enough boats decide to re-gear and go out for shrimp, if the stocks have indeed rebounded and if the catch is plentiful.
“The shrimp never comes to us on an even supply basis,” Norton explains. “If the catch is good, we can be hit like a ton of bricks.” Then, the plant goes into double shifts, with about 100 workers processing 50,000 pounds a day.
“It’s a big gamble,” Norton says, adding that any part of the seafood business is risky. “Every day,” he says, “people who are in the seafood business ask themselves, ‘Why did I get into this?'”