Saving Seafood

Pandemic pushes North American seafood suppliers to explore local supply, B2C revenue streams

March 17, 2021 — Almost exactly a year ago, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the North American seafood industry to confront an ultimatum: adapt or risk perishing. By and large, seafood suppliers on the continent chose the former, opting to transform their businesses to succeed in a drastically changed market, according to a panel of industry insiders, speaking at this week’s Seafood Expo North America Reconnect.

Ocean Wise Conservation Association Fisheries and Seafood Director Sophika Kostyniuk, who moderated the panel session “Prioritizing Responsible Seafood in Uncertain Times,” said the industry had to act reflexively as COVID-19 and its new social order riddled supply chains with “challenges, uncertainties, and unknowns.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US seafood industry set to benefit from COVID-19 relief package

March 17, 2021 — U.S. President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act into law on Thursday, 11 March, almost one year after the CARES Act established the country’s first federal coronavirus relief bill.

The USD 1.9 trillion (EUR 1.6 trillion) American Rescue Plan Act is the largest spending package in U.S. history and contains significantly less relief for the commercial fishing and seafood industries than the CARES Act included, though much of that funding is yet to be distributed.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

SENA Reconnect: New US seafood-buying trends here to stay

March 17, 2021 — Given one word to explain the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic for seafood retailers, “chaos” is what Publix Seafood Category Manager Guy Pizzuti immediately names.

Speaking during a panel at Seafood Expo North America Reconnect, Pizzuti – who was joined by Hy-Vee Vice President of Meat/Seafood/Delicatessen Jason Pride, Meijer Seafood Buyer David Wier, and Food Marketing Institute Vice President of Fresh Foods Rick Stein – said the initial days of the pandemic came as a huge surprise for the entire industry.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

New Jersey’s fishing industry fights to weather the pandemic as aid finally pours in

March 16, 2021 — Rich Isaksen has had no trouble catching fish during a pandemic.

Selling his catch, however, has been a disaster.

Isaksen is the president of the Belford Seafood Cooperative Association in Monmouth County, a collection of about 20 independent fishing boats. When governments around the region ordered restaurants to close in efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19, demand for fish caught by people like Isaksen evaporated. Prices at the docks plunged.

In June, the fisherman was offered just three cents per pound for red hake, a fish that normally draws 50 or 60 cents per pound. It wasn’t an isolated case.

“Last week, I think they got $1.20 (per pound) for summer flounder,” Isaksen said. “Normally, that’s like three or four dollars.”

Wholesalers, to whom Isaksen’s co-op usually sells, tried to compensate for disappearing restaurant demand by peddling more to supermarkets and grocery stores. That helped some, Isaksen said, but he still estimates his 2020 income from selling to wholesalers was slashed in half.

“The thing about the fishing industry, there’s not a lot of people buying whole fish and cleaning them,” Isaksen said. “A lot of people are going to restaurants.”

Read the full story at NJ.com

Pandemic stresses already-challenged Louisiana seafood industry

March 16, 2021 — The limitations placed on dining, workplaces and businesses to curb the spread of the coronavirus are just the latest in a string of hard hits for the Louisiana’s seafood industry, which has faced one problem after another in the last few years.

As Business Report details in a new feature, the industry was already battling competition from foreign imports, which undercut prices and inspired the Louisiana Legislature in 2019 to pass a seafood labelling law requiring restaurant menus to label whether shrimp and crawfish are of Louisiana origin.

In 2019, the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway for 123 days released an influx of freshwater from the Mississippi River into oyster-harvesting areas, decimating the supply. Add to that, the 2020 hurricane season, in which the state’s fertile waters and seafood farms faced off against five named landfalling storms.

Read the full story at Business Report

SENA Reconnect panel: Innovative flavors will boost restaurants’ sales in a post-COVID world

March 16, 2021 — Not only are Americans eager to get back out to eat, they’re also hankering to try something different when they do, according to Datassential Director of Customer Success Mark DiDimenico.

Adding unique and portable seafood dishes to menus will help restaurants and other foodservice outlets increase spending averages and make up for some of the declines experienced in the industry over the past year, DiDimenico and other chefs and experts said during a Seafood Expo North America Reconnect panel on Monday, 15 March.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Pandemic buying shifts prove a boon for direct-to-consumer online seafood subscription services

March 16, 2021 — Almost exactly a year ago, Ian Amin, the senior director of supply chain for Home Chef, a Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.-based meal kit and food delivery company, was driving to pick up a new puppy in Wisconsin when he received a call from his boss that would change the trajectory of his entire year.

Kroger, which bought Home Chef in 2018, was facing an acute food shortage as a result of panic-buying driven by the rapid spread of COVID-19 across the United States.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Sen. Cantwell Questions Department of Commerce Nominee on Census Delays and Fisheries Disaster Relief

March 16, 2021 — The following was released by the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation:

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, questioned Don Graves, nominee to be Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, on issues regarding Census data for the State of Washington and getting disaster relief funds for fishermen in the Pacific Northwest.

The Census Bureau announced last month that it is delaying its deadline for releasing data needed to draw Census maps, and the information that should be delivered in March will not be available until September 30th of this year. In the State of Washington, a bipartisan commission draws and approves the 10-year congressional and legislative redistricting plans and must do so by November 15th. This shortened window will lead to a truncated commission process and limit the community engagement that normally allows Washingtonians to have significant input in these maps.

Chair Cantwell addressed this issue in her questioning with Mr. Graves: “[The delay] will cause challenges for states as they try to meet their constitutional duties on redistricting,” Cantwell said. “So, some are already struggling with how to get meaningful public input with a truncated timeline. If confirmed, will you work to address the state issues and address the accuracy and timeliness of the Census?”

Graves responded, “I absolutely will work on that issue. I will also listen to the experts, the career experts at the department, and not allow politics to impact the accuracy and timeliness of the Census.”

In her questioning, Cantwell also highlighted the need for immediate fisheries disaster funding for WA state fishermen: “There are several pending fishery disaster determinations for my state, such as Washington Puget Sound Coho salmon fishery, they’ve been pending for years. Senator Wicker and I are planning to reintroduce our bipartisan bill, which is about reform of the fisheries disaster process, including deadlines to ensure that fishery disasters are elevated and declared in a reasonable timeframe. Let me be blunt: our fishermen are tired of waiting, dealing with NOAA on these fisheries. It’s taken literally years to receive, you know, the disaster determination, let alone the funding. So we need a solution and we need reform. How will you help turn the tide on what seems like an endless cycle of disaster timing?”

Graves responded, “You and I have talked about this in the past and I appreciate how critical it is for the fisheries around the country, and especially for the fishing industry. Sustainably managed fisheries are critical to our economy, to our culture, to the fishing industry. I will absolutely work with the career staff at NOAA to make certain that we get these disaster dollars out the door and supporting those communities that have been most critically impacted by the pandemic, and by the challenge to our fisheries.”

Video of Chair Cantwell’s opening statement can be found HERE and audio is HERE.

Video of Cantwell’s Q&A with Mr. Graves can be found HERE and audio is HERE.

Transcripts can be found HERE.

Economist Lindsey Piegza to break down COVID-19 impacts in SENA Reconnect keynote

March 15, 2021 — Stifel Financial Corp. Senior Economist Lindsey Piegza thinks USD 10 trillion (EUR 8.4 trillion) might just be enough stimulus to get the global economy through the COVID-19 pandemic.

That’s the figure Piezga estimates the collective government response has been globally to the crisis. And while the total amount spent thus far is staggering, the United States and many other Western governments are still in recession and there are many problems money alone cannot solve, Piezga told SeafoodSource.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALASKA: Proposal for state buyback of Cook Inlet setnet permits advances in Legislature

March 12, 2021 — Legislation aimed at easing tensions and fishing pressure in one of the state’s most popular fisheries is already on the move this session after dying in the COVID-shortened session last year.

Without objection, the Senate Resources Committee advanced Sen. Peter Micciche’s Senate Bill 29 to the Finance Committee March 8; the bill authorizes the state to buy back nearly half of the upper Cook Inlet setnet permits on the Kenai Peninsula from any members.

Micciche, a Soldotna Republican who was also selected Senate President earlier this year, said during a March 3 Resources hearing that the plan for the state to voluntarily repurchase permits from East Side Cook Inlet setnetters was initially drafted by a group of sport anglers and commercial harvesters “who have struggled to work together for many years and now feel like they have a solution moving forward.”

Resources chair Sen. Josh Revak, R-Anchorage, noted that public testimony on SB 29 generated nearly 30 mentions of support, primarily from East Side setnetters, and no opposition, which was a contrast from prior attempts to move similar legislation.

“We’re finally at the end of our rope. Fishing families that have been fishing the East Side of Cook Inlet for generations are at the end of their rope,” Micciche said to the committee. “We want some of those fishing families to remain viable and give those that choose to be bought out an opportunity to move to other fisheries or to retrain for another line of work.”

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News