May 17, 2021 — Alaska’s seafood industry has a lot of moving parts. There are the fishermen, the processors, the market, as well as the fish themselves.
By all accounts, the pandemic has been hard on the processors. Last year, they spent about $70 million in mitigation measures and responding to the pandemic. But this year it’s expected to be even more…over $100 million.
In fact, a lot of it has already been spent this year.
“There were challenges and some plant closures that happened despite all these protocols,” Lesh said.
Dan Lesh is with McKinley Research Group that surveyed processors and others in March about the effects of COVID on Alaska’s seafood industry. He says the flat fish industry was hit hard with outbreaks in January causing expensive plant closures. Those costs are in addition to the ongoing price for pandemic mitigation.
“A lot of these costs are already baked and my understanding is that most the mitigation measures will be continued.”
So, basically there are more months this calendar year dealing with the pandemic.