May 10, 2022 — Rising seafood prices and consumer concerns about overall inflation in the U.S. continued to harm fresh seafood sales in April, according to new data.
However, frozen seafood sales rose 2.8 percent and shelf-stable seafood sales jumped 9.6 percent for the month, compared to April 2021, according to IRI and 210 Analytics.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
May 4, 2022 — The federal government has indicted a seafood distributor and eight of its employees and associates on charges of smuggling valuable eels.
The company, American Eel Depot of Totowa, New Jersey, is the biggest importer and wholesale distributor of eel meat in the country. The Justice Department said on April 29 that the defendants in the case conspired to unlawfully smuggle large numbers of baby European eels out of Europe to a factory in China.
Read the full story at U.S. News & World Report
April 25, 2022 — Democrats’ conflicting impulses over the future of U.S. trade policy are playing out here in the nation’s Pacific Northwest.
Oregon, in particular, embodies the tension: The state’s economy is highly dependent on free trade and yet its progressive-leaning voters are typically skeptical of its benefits. That tug-of-war is vexing both parties as lawmakers weigh how much to push for more foreign market access for U.S. companies and investors despite the potential for political backlash.
In his visit to Portland late last week, President Joe Biden touted his administration’s investments in ports, airports and other infrastructure projects to speed the movement of goods, while at the same time acknowledging that snarled supply chains have sparked historic inflation.
“All across Oregon, we’re sending the message: These ports and airports are open for more business,” Biden told the crowd at Portland International Airport.
While back home in Oregon last week, [Sen. Ron] Wyden joined [U.S. Trade Representative Katherine] Tai and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on tours of a commercial fishing vessel and semiconductor development facility. The trio heard from seafood industry groups who say they’re being bested on the global market by Chinese rivals who have been accused of overfishing waterways, taking government subsidies and using forced labor.
“On a good day, we struggle to gain a competitive edge in the marketplace,” said Lori Steele, executive director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association. “Our days have not been good lately.”
April 18, 2022 — While their appearance is glass-like and puny, Maine elvers come with a price tag that’s a shock to many.
One pound of elvers, also known as baby glass eels, sells for more than $2,000, beating out a pandemic slump of just over $500 per pound, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources.
These eels are on the rebound, as many close to the industry said this is the best season they’ve had in recent history. This season was so productive. In fact, the limits will be reached before May, more than a month before their expected end date.
But why so expensive? These elvers may be two inches now but can grow up to five feet long.
These eels will also be shipped across the world to China and Japan, where they will be farmed for their meat.
April 18, 2022 — A structural decline in China’s pork consumption, being driven by the country’s changing demographics as well as health concerns and rising incomes, will benefit the seafood industry, according to Bu Rui Ke (which also trades as China Brick), a research consultancy focused on agricultural commodities and publicly listed agricultural and food firms.
However, the firm found seafood is facing a battle with beef to become the protein of choice among the fast-growing, higher-spending Chinese middle class.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
April 15, 2022 — A U.S. ban on seafood imports from Russia over its invasion of Ukraine was supposed to sap billions of dollars from Vladimir Putin’s war machine.
But shortcomings in import regulations mean that Russian-caught pollock, salmon and crab are likely to enter the U.S. anyway, by way of the country vital to seafood supply chains across the world: China.
Like the U.S. seafood industry, Russian companies rely heavily on China to process their catch. Once there, the seafood can be re-exported to the U.S. as a “product of China” because country of origin labelling isn’t required.
The result is that nearly a third of the wild-caught fish imported from China is estimated to have been caught in Russian waters, according to an International Trade Commission study of 2019 data. For pollock and sockeye salmon, the rate is even higher — 50% to 75%.
“China doesn’t catch cod. They don’t catch pollock. But yet, they’re one of the largest exporters of these whitefish in the world,” said Sally Yozell, a former policy director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who now is a senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington. “Having it labeled as a Chinese product is really not fair to the consumers and to restaurants.”
April 6, 2022 — Coastal regions off West Africa, the mid-Atlantic near Portugal and waters off Peru are the riskiest spots for illegal fishing and labor abuse, with most occurring aboard vessels registered to China and other countries with poor anti-corruption oversight, a new study has found.
The study, published in Nature Communications, found that nearly half of more than 750 ports assessed worldwide are linked to either labor abuse or illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
The high seas have become “a safe haven” for illegal fishing, with millions of tons of such fish caught every year, authors wrote, incorporating an online survey of experts that revealed the pervasive nature of these practices.
Researchers found that vessels that engage is such activity also often have labor abuses on board, including practices such as forced labor, debt bondage and poor conditions.
Read the full story at The Hill
April 5, 2022 — The U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) has ordered the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to take a second look at its decision making on thousands of Section 301 tariffs levied against Chinese goods.
The 71-page decision by the court, released 1 April, 2022, stems from a lawsuit filed in 2020 by a company that specializes in vinyl flooring. Norwalk, Connecticut, U.S.A.-based HMTX Industries and its affiliated companies filed a complaint with the CIT challenging the authority of former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and the “unlawful escalation” of the trade war with China.
March 30, 2022 — At least one-third of all recorded fishery offenses are associated with industrial fishing vessels – specifically just 20 companies and 450 industrial fishing vessels – and over half of the industrial offenses have Chinese beneficial ownership.
According to “Fish Crimes in the Global Oceans,” prepared for ocean conservation group Oceana and published in Science Advances, 59 percent of offences in the industrial fishing sector are related to Chinese owned vessels. Fifteen percent were tied to Indonesian vessels and 12 percent were associated with South Korean vessels.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
March 30, 2022 — A Chinese seafood industry executive has taken issue with a report by a group of Norwegian and U.S. academics that suggested mislabeling is commonplace in the huge Chinese seafood processing industry.
Unibond Seafood International CEO David Jiang said the data and conclusions in the report, “China’s Seafood Imports – Not for Domestic Consumption?” are incorrect because they don’t take into account the percentage of the fish volume reduced in processing.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource