January 15, 2014 — With so many people pining for the tiny crustaceans, I thought it would be interesting to see if there are still any frozen shrimp out there from the 2013 season for consumers to snap up before they’re gone for good. I also checked in with some Maine restaurants to see what they will be offering on their menus as an alternative to Maine shrimp.
A round of calls and emails to Maine fish markets and grocery stores confirmed that there’s hardly any Maine shrimp left out there in the consumer pipeline, except for Hannaford grocery stores.
“In terms of frozen shrimp from last year, we do have a limited supply in some stores,” said Hannaford spokesman Eric Blom.
Tom Keegan, who handles shrimp and lobster sales for Cozy Harbor Seafood on Portland’s Union Wharf, said the Hannaford shrimp are cooked, peeled Cozy Harbor Maine shrimp found in 9-ounce packages in the frozen seafood case.
“They do have some product in most of the stores now, I believe,” Keegan said. “I’m not sure how long it will last. We really don’t have anything to follow it up with.”
Keegan said the company has considered buying northern shrimp from Canada, but has not made a decision yet.
“I think it would probably happen sometime in the first half of the year if we were going to do something like that,” he said. “The Canadian season really kind of kicks in in April.… That’s when they see their largest shrimp.”
Michael Alfiero of Harbor Fish Market in Portland said they “bought heavy” last year, knowing that this year’s Maine shrimp season was uncertain. They ran out of stock in the fall. The market has purchased a limited amount of Canadian shrimp that Alfiero is selling in bulk to loyal wholesale accounts for $10 to $11 per pound, but “I don’t really have anything for the retail trade.”
Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald