FARMING THE SEA
“There are approximately 130 certified clam farmers in the Cedar Key area,” says Sturmer, “and 18 wholesalers. Wholesalers farm their own clams but also buy them from independent local farmers. All clam farmers are subject to extensive governmental regulatory control and must meet strict guidelines to farm and
sell clams. The way the program is set up is that the state of Florida leases two-acre submerged plots in designated clamming areas to certified growers. The growers are then responsible for their own harvest, under close state supervision.” Wholesaler Chris Topping, chief operation officer and president of Clamtastic Seafood Inc., began his life as a clam farmer as soon as he turned 18 and was eligible to purchase his first lease. “Clamming is a great business,” says Topping. “But it is a business that is constantly changing, and it requires the ability to look to the future and make the necessary
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changes if you are going to succeed.” Topping’s ability to adapt is evident; his business is thriving, producing over 40 million clams annually. He not only farms clams but buys regularly from local independent farmers as needed to meet market demand. “I came here in 1992, but my wife, Diana’s, family has lived here for eight generations,” he says. “I was interested in marine biology and aquaculture, and when I graduated from high school, the clam business was just beginning to take off, and we got into it early. I was an independent farmer until the terrorist attack in 2001. After the attack, the clam business went to nothing, just like the rest of the economy. We saw then that the only way we would survive would be to wholesale our own clams; we couldn’t depend on wholesalers up north to move our clams, we had to do it ourselves—so we started Clamtastic. We now have 25 employees and farm approximately 30 acres of leased seabed.” Both Topping and Sturmer note that the clam-farming business is expanding to other coastal states such as the Carolinas and Virginia. This expansion has flooded the market with fresh clams and has driven prices down considerably in the last few years. Still adapting to this type of change, Topping says his company is looking
to the future by beginning to move toward increased production of frozen clams, which has more of a market demand than fresh clams now, and for the foreseeable future. Mike Smith, operations manager of Cedar Key Aquaculture Farms, another local wholesaler, echoes many of Toppings sentiments. His company employs 10 local workers and farms 24 acres of seabed. “I’ve lived here 30 years, and my wife, Lisa’s, family has been here for five generations,” Smith says. “Her family all made their living off the water their entire lives, and we’ve been clam farming for 18 years now. We sell both fresh and frozen clams, but the frozen market is definitely the best market right now. There are at least a dozen fresh clam wholesalers right here in Cedar Key and only about three that are in the business of marketing frozen clams in the entire state.” Frozen clams have a much longer shelf life than fresh clams and are used by major seafood restaurant chains and many fine chefs at high-end restaurants. Both Topping and Smith say the reason more wholesale distributors haven’t entered this area of clam marketing is the fact that foreign countries such as China and Vietnam are able to supply American demand at a very low price. This makes it hard for American clam wholesalers to garner enough profit to make their businesses viable. “Many American restaurant chains buy foreign product because it’s cheap,” Smith says. “Companies such as Darden, which owns Red Lobster, buy from overseas, and that hurts famers here at home. It makes it very hard for us to compete in the frozen market.”
Photo by Tyler Jones
fisherman and crabbers how to farm the Gulf. She introduced them to their future—the hardshelled clam. The one-time fishermen were eager to learn, and instead of basking in the glory of days gone by when Cedar Key was called the Seafood Capital of the World, in a mere five years, they simply turned Cedar Key into the Clam Capital of the United States. Soon, this little Gulf hamlet was producing more farm-grown clams than any other coastal town in the nation. At last count in 2007, Cedar Key farmers were marketing more than 132 million clams annually to both national and international clients.