The Reston, Virginia-headquartered National Fisheries Institute (NFI) announced on December 5 that it will be home to the Global Shrimp Council as the group begins work to create a “pre-competitive partnership designed to promote US shrimp consumption.”
In September, co-founders David Castro from Manta Bay Seafood and Gabriel Luna of Gluna Shrimp unveiled plans for the group during the Global Shrimp Forum Foundation meeting in the Netherlands. The marketing campaign goal then was to be organized before the end of the year with a leadership team and funding arrangement in place.
NFI already manages collaborative work as part of its council system for Tuna, Crab, Shrimp, Mexican Shrimp, Sushi and Salmon.
“We are excited to get started on this work,” said Brandon Phillips, NFI’s vice president of external affairs and councils. “Creating a structure for the group, collecting funding, and instituting a management structure aren’t quite as sexy as live-fire promotion and marketing. But it’s these foundational things that need to be done first. And they are getting under way.”
“In the Netherlands we received initial funding commitments from some of the biggest shrimp producers in the world,” said Castro. “They see the need for this type of promotion and will be the driving force behind it. We are excited to work with them.”
There has already been nearly a year’s worth of preliminary work done on the effort guided by one of the architects of the Avocados from Mexico strategy. Governance, finance, and membership composition will be the first tenets addressed by NFI and the new group’s leadership.
