Saving Seafood

SeaShare, food distributors work to keep food supply moving amid COVID-19 pandemic

March 19, 2020 — Seafood producers and foodservice distributors alike have formed partnerships amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic to ensure that U.S. residents continue to have a supply of food.

On 19 March, the International Foodservice Distributors Association (IFDA) and the FMI-Food Industry Association announced an ad-hoc partnership to help cope with the supply-chain disruptions caused by the ongoing epidemic. The new partnership consists of a matching program, connecting foodservice/broadline distributors with excess capacity – either products, transport services, or warehousing services – to food retailers and wholesalers that need additional resources to meet the rapidly increased demand seen in the retail and grocery industry.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fake-seafood producers are pushing back against laws requiring accurate labeling

March 18, 2020 — Genetically tweaked salmon that grow three times faster than normal fish. Fillets grown in labs from fish cells. Now plant-based seafoods such as “vegan shrimp,” or “Toona,” are gaining footholds in the marketplace – and confusing customers.

A new study by FoodMinds for the National Fisheries Institute showed that about 40 percent of consumers believed plant-based imitations contain actual seafood. Up to 60 percent thought the products had similar nutritional content as real fish. Still, fake-seafood producers are pushing back against more accurate labeling, claiming without any evidence that customers know what they are getting.

“We have to ensure that the labels are educating people about something as simple as what’s in the package. A lot of these plant-based alternative makers have even suggested that they have the ‘first amendment right’ to call their products whatever they want. And that’s simply not the case,” said Gavin Gibbons, NFI vice president for communications.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

NFI Red Crab Council Remains Committed to Improving Chinese Crab Fishery

March 17, 2020 — The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:

The National Fisheries Institute’s Red Crab Council will continue to fund and support its Fisheries Improvement Project (FIP) in China. The comprehensive FIP is focused on improving crab production in Fujian Province, the leading harvesting region in China for red crab.

“For so many reasons the operating climate around red crab, from a trade perspective, is challenging these days,” said Newport International President Anjan Tharakan, the NFI Red Crab Council Chair. “It would be easy to see why companies might say they don’t want to participate in this work right now. But not one company did. This is a committed group.”

The Council’s project partner on the ground in China is Ocean Outcomes (O2), who coordinates with fishery stakeholders, government interests and the China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance to keep the FIP moving in the right direction.

The NFI Red Crab Council funds the work by assessing a fee on each of its members based on the number of pounds they import each quarter.

“Like most FIPs, this project has its challenges on the water, but when your primary source of funding off the water is directly dependent on trade volume, and tariffs enter the picture, that makes things even more challenging,” said O2 Founder and Senior Advisor Rich Lincoln. “To be able to continue the work in China with local fishery stakeholders will allow us to build on the momentum we’ve generated and ensure this important FIP remains on track.”

The status of the Fujian Red Crab FIP is updated biannually on fisheryprogress.org. Its 2019 work focused on implementation of catch, biological and effort data collection, harvest strategy evaluation, and lost fishing gear assessment.

The NFI Red Crab Council is the leading precompetitive collaboration effort focused solely on the sustainability of Red Swimming Crab. The Council is committed to collaborating on Red Crab Fisheries Improvement Projects globally.

Final 2019 Maine lobster harvest landings were better than first feared

January 28, 2020 — Despite all of the concerns expressed about the 2019 Maine lobster harvest, landings improved at the end of the year and weren’t as bad as feared, Sheila Adams, vice president of sales and marketing and co-founder of processor Maine Coast, told attendees at the National Fisheries Institute’s Global Seafood Market Conference last week.

Though lobster can be harvested all year off the coast of Maine, the season typically picks up in earnest in July and August. So many in the industry were made nervous in November when Maine harvesters were widely reported as saying they believed their landings were going to finish 2019 between 30% and 50% lower than the 2018 season total (about 54,000t).

Based on Urner Barry estimates, shared at the event, the 2019 harvest in Maine was not quite as bad as that, garnering about 43,226t, down 21% from the year before. The state of Maine’s Department of Marine Resources never publishes its official tally for the previous year’s lobster harvest until March, so it will be a while before the final numbers are known.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Lack of haddock means US importers can’t capitalize on removal from China tariff list

January 23, 2020 — Haddock has been cut from the US list of products from China subject to 25% tariffs, but there is little fish available to capitalize on this opening.

Haddock and flatfish were removed in the ‘list three’ tariffs on Dec. 17 last year, around a month before the “phase one” agreement between the US and China that effectively paused the trade war at the current levels. The bulk of seafood from China still has 25% tariffs on it into the US. China has 35% tariffs on US seafood but has committed to buying $200 billion worth of additional US products, goods and services over the next two years, reducing the US’ bilateral trade deficit in goods, which hit $420bn in 2018.

There was a “concerted effort” from the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) and industry to get haddock excluded, Todd Clark, of importer Endeavor Seafood, told Undercurrent News at the NFI’s 2020 Global Seafood Market Conference (GSMC).

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Pacific Seafood’s Dulcich in as NFI chair

January 22, 2020 — Pacific Seafood Group founder Frank Dulcich has been appointed as chair of the US’ National Fisheries Institute (NFI), replacing Todd Clark, the organization confirmed to Undercurrent News.

At its annual meeting in Orlando this week, NFI announced the election of directors and the new board chair, a post which rotates on an annual basis.

Clark, a vice president at Endeavor Seafoods, was NFI chair for 2019. He previously served as NFI’s secretary, treasurer, and vice-chairman, and is a founding member of NFI’s Economic Integrity Taskforce.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Seafood industry awaits details before celebrating ‘phase one’ US-China deal

January 17, 2020 — The US and China may have reached the interim trade agreement that loosely promises to commit China to purchasing more US seafood products, but the seafood industry is keeping its party hats and noisemakers in the drawer.

In a ceremony held Wednesday at the White House, US president Donald Trump and China vice premier Liu He signed the so-called “phase one” trade deal that has been described as hitting the pause button on a two-year trade war that has devastated the US agriculture and seafood industries.

The deal, which is expected to take effect in mid-February and spelled out in an 86-page document, commits China to buying $200 billion worth of additional US products, goods and services over the next two years, reducing the US’ bilateral trade deficit in goods, which hit $420 billion in 2018. It removes planned US tariffs on Chinese cellphones, toys and laptops, as well as halving the existing tariffs on approximately $120bn worth of Chinese goods, the Financial Times recounts.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

NFI blasts Dr. Oz Show for linking shrimp to antibiotics, slave labor, and microplastics

November 12, 2019 — The National Fisheries Institute is sharply criticizing an episode of the Dr. Oz Show linking shrimp and antibiotics, slave labor, and microplastics.

In the episode, which aired on 11 November, show host Mehmet Oz interviews Paul Greenberg, author of “American Catch” and “Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food,” about the safety and healthfulness of eating shrimp.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NFI launches pro-seafood YouTube channel

October 23, 2019 — The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) on Tuesday announced the creation of the new YouTube channel, AboutSeafood, which is designed to educate health care professionals and consumers about the role of seafood in the diet. NFI’s registered dietitian, Jennifer McGuire, hosts the channel.

“Seafood is one of the healthiest foods on the planet, yet confusion still exists about how much to eat, what pregnant women and children’s seafood diets should look like, and how fish fits into an overall eating pattern,” said McGuire.

The core videos on the channel feature McGuire with expert guests. “Through conversations with colleagues in the nutrition space, we hope to debunk myths and provide clarity about seafood.”

The channel also offers shorter videos in which McGuire shares quick facts about seafood nutrition.

Read the full story at IntraFish

SeaShare, NFI Future Leaders hold national day of giving to fight hunger with seafood

October 15, 2019 — SeaShare – a nonprofit organization devoted to partnering with the seafood industry to get seafood into various foodbanks – and the National Fisheries Institute’s (NFI) Future Leaders program is holding a national day of giving on 16 October.

SeaShare donates seafood through a national network of food banks, known as Feeding America, in order to provide thousands of people struggling with hunger with healthy proteins. Partners throughout the seafood industry provide funding and seafood to give nutritious meals to some of the 41 million Americans that struggle with hunger.

Read the full story at Seafood Source