re: I'm thinking of starting a shrimp broker business in NWA

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I have knowledge of shrimp "shelf live" and the problems involved.

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Are you going to be hauling fresh or frozen shrimp? As you already know fresh shrimp only have a shelf life of a couple days before the orange(fat) in the heads start to show up. At this point a lot of people will think they aren't fresh enough (and won't want to buy them) even though they are fine. This is something ingrained in southern Louisiana people but this may not be as bad as you go north.

I also ask about frozen shrimp because fresh day boat caught shrimp are not always available. There are a few different types of shrimpers in the gulf: skiff or day boat shrimp, ice boat shrimp and IQF boats. Skiff boat shrimp are smaller boats that shrimp for one day or less and come back in. These are fresh and usually retail-able depending on how good they take care of them. Ice boats will go out for a week or longer and keep their shrimp on ice. These are usually not retail-able and are sold to the factories to be peeled. IQF boats also go out for longer than a week but freeze their shrimp in a salt water brine solution and store them in a freezer on the boat. These shrimp can be slacked out and retailed if the boat takes care of them and does it right.

Fresh shrimp supply can be sporadic while IQF are usually year round. It's just something to think about if you are going to do this year round.

For areas, I would call the docks in Venice/Buras, Delacroix, Lafitte, Dulac, Grand Isle/Fourchon/Leeville, Morgan City, Delcambre, Cameron,etc areas for fresh shrimp. You can also try with some distributors in the New Orleans area since a lot of retail shrimp are scooped up by them since most of them run their trucks to these areas daily.

If I had your email, I could give you some places to try.