Researcher sees DDGS as potential savior of U.S. shrimp industry

Ethanol Producer Magazine
By Holly Jessen January 20, 2012

A Texas A&M University System researcher has identified distillers grains and the domestic shrimp industry as excellent bedfellows.

Addison Lawrence, a project leader and scientist in charge at Texas AgriLife Research Mariculture Laboratory at Port Aransas, Texas, explains that two things have hit the U.S. domestic shrimp industry hard. No. 1 is the extremely high cost of shrimp feed, which can add up to $600 a ton to even $1,500 a ton. Secondly, as the world consumes increasing amounts of farm-produced shrimp as opposed to wild-caught shrimp, the U.S. has lost 50 to 60 percent of its shrimp production to overseas locations. “Because Thailand, Vietnam and other countries in the tropics can grow two or three crops of shrimp per year compared to just one crop in the U.S., it’s hard to compete,” he said. “Unless we do something we aren’t going to have any [U.S. shrimp production] in another 10 years.”

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