Our family has been providing quality seafood products since 1912 when our great-grandfather, Leopold Blum, began to trade in furs, dry goods and dried shrimp in the bayou region of South Louisiana. Leopold began to sell dried shrimp to Chinese merchants in the New Orleans French Quarter which would introduce the world to a dried shrimp that would become widely regarded as the world’s finest. At one time, Louisiana dried shrimp was so high in demand that we exported 2,000,000 pounds of dried shrimp per year to China and the Far East. Our famous trademark brands are Redbug Brand and Baby Brand have long represented the best quality dried shrimp from Louisiana and still do so today.
Leopold’s son (and our grandfather), Louis Blum, Sr., and grandson, Tom Cobb, ran the company in Leopold’s footsteps. Louis, an engineer, invented the modern shrimp drying machine, and is credited with saving the Louisiana dried shrimp industry. Rising cost of shrimp, health regulations, and competition from the canning and the frozen shrimp industries threatened all shrimp drying operations. Louis’s drying machine brought the drying process indoors and reduced the drying time to hours rather than days. It also eliminated spoilage due to weather while keeping the drying process sanitary. All the inventions to produce (cook, dry, shell and clean) dried shrimp in Louisiana were invented and patented by members of the family. Today, this machinery and equipment is used worldwide wherever dried shrimp is produced.
Louis Blum, Sr.’s sons, Louis Jr. (“Skip”), David and Leopold (“Lep”), continued the family legacy and grew the company as the third generation. Under their stewardship, they have successfully continued to pioneer & market new products to satisfy our customers – so much so that they outgrew the production facilities that had been in use since 1922. With the newly constructed facilities in Houma, LA they were able to produce roughly 40% more dried shrimp product to satisfy the needs of our valued customers.
Today, as Blum’s Seafood Products, a fourth generation of Blums are helping to produce and market the same world class dried shrimp from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. South Louisiana is the only area of the United States of America that produces dried shrimp and we aspire to provide our quality & unique products to the world’s markets. We are a family from South Louisiana that take great pride in continuing the legacy of our ancestors. Quality Dried Shrimp is not only our passion, but it is our way of life.