Four organizations representing food industries that produce hundreds of millions of dollars for Alabama’s economy are calling on President Donald Trump to use targeted tariffs to assist them.

The coalition of groups, which represent farmers and producers throughout the South, say imported honey, catfish, crawfish, and shrimp have flourished because of predatory trade practices.

The American Honey Producers Association, Catfish Farmers of America, Crawfish Processors Alliance, Louisiana Farm Bureau Crawfish Committee and Southern Shrimp Alliance asked Trump in a May 9 letter to “include significant tariffs” on foreign shipments of their products.

According to them, their industries face collapse without immediate action against imports from Vietnam, China, India, and other nations. which threaten their own products in foreign markets through a web of tariffs, regulations, currency manipulation and other tactics.

“President Trump understands what previous administrations missed—food security is national security,” Steven Coy, president of the American Honey Producers Association.

All four sectors have a place in Alabama’s economy. Alabama is the second largest producer of U.S. farm-raised catfish, with 96.2 million pounds worth $112.6 million last year, according to the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service. In fact, catfish is Alabama’s eighth largest agricultural crop.

Alabama produces between 200,000 and 300,000 pounds of farm raised shrimp each year, which is third nationally, behind only Texas and Florida.

The state produces about 400,000 pounds of honey, according to the USDA. And Alabama farmers supplement their income by harvesting and selling crawfish.

 The organizations are asking for

• Tariffs on imported honey, catfish, crawfish, and shrimp calibrated to domestic production costs.
• Strengthening enforcement against tax evasion tactics.
• Invoking laws to protect food security.
• Enhancing inspection of imported products for safety violations.

Brad Graham, president of Catfish Farmers of America, said Trump’s “commitment to fair trade gives us hope that we will see significant action to offset the specific practices harming our domestic producers.”

.“The U.S. catfish industry has been devastated, with production capacity slashed by half and thousands of rural jobs eliminated,” Graham said. “Meanwhile, countries like Vietnam block U.S. exports while flooding our markets with subsidized products, including pangasius and other catfish-like products.”

Shrimp producers in Alabama have cheered Trump’s tariffs as a way of helping their industry.

“U.S. shrimpers harvest America’s favorite seafood sustainably while supporting coastal economies and communities,” John Williams, executive director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance said. “The Trump administration has demonstrated it stands by American workers. We hope this means America will stop outsourcing our shrimp supply to foreign producers with questionable practices that undermine economic and food security.”