Committee approves bill letting seafood safety fund be used for promotion and marketing

Representative Jessica Domaine told the committee House Bill 349 would permit the Commissioner to use the imported seafood safety fund for promotion and marketing in addition to testing. "We are giving the commissioner the ability to use this fund to then go out and promote seafood and promote Louisiana seafood," she said.

Commissioner Strain said the fund would provide a place to "park monies" for promotion, permit matching grants and enable coordinated campaigns with the lieutenant governor's marketing board and certified programs. He stressed the bill is not intended to reduce testing: "The goal is not to decrease the amount of testing but wherever we can find additional monies ... the goal is to grow the seafood consumption of domestic seafood."

Senator Wheat asked how the proposal differs from the existing Louisiana Seafood Marketing Board; the commissioner described separate revenue sources and said the bills under consideration would allow pooling dollars to support larger campaigns.

Senator Day reported HB 349 favorably with no recorded opposition on the motion; no substantive amendments were taken on the record.