Saving Seafood

Alaska lawmakers take up seafood trade deficit

February 1, 2022 — Seafood is Alaska’s biggest export by far, and state lawmakers are getting tough on trade policies that unfairly trounce global sales.

Two resolutions (SJR-16 and SJR-17) were advanced last week by the Alaska House Fisheries Committee that address Russia’s ban on buying any U.S. foods since 2014, and punitive seafood tariffs by China since 2018. Meanwhile, the United States imports increasing amounts of seafood from both countries.

Both resolutions were introduced by Sen. Gary Stevens (R-Kodiak) and “urge more attention” by Alaska’s federal team in Congress to restore pathways for fair trade.

“In order to remain competitive in the world seafood market, our Alaska seafood processors need some help from our partners federally. These resolutions would attempt to restore focus on negotiations with China to ease this tariff war that’s underway and level the playing field with Russia in favor of Alaska,” said Stevens’ aide Tim Lamkin at the hearing.

The heck with that, said a chorus of Fish Committee members who applauded the intent but said it doesn’t go far enough.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Unprecedented demand for seafood battling inflation headwinds

February 1, 2022 — Inflation is expected to be a major issue impacting the food industry this year, but will hurt the seafood sector less than others, according to executives at Santa Monica Seafood and Steve Connolly Seafood.

A Reuters quarterly survey of more than 500 economists conducted in January, resulted in a general consensus that 2022 will bring with it higher inflation. Economists also reduced their global growth forecasts to 4.3 percent growth in 2022, down from the 4.5 percent predicted in October, in part because of steeper interest rates and higher costs of living.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

USDA trade officer in Japan sees opportunity for US seafood exports

January 28, 2022 — The Foreign Agricultural Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) maintains Agricultural Trade Offices (ATOs) in U.S. embassies and many consulates. The ATOs provide market information and help to coordinate promotions for U.S. exporters. SeafoodSource talked with the new director of the ATO in Osaka, Japan, Alexander Blamberg. Before taking up the post in August 2021, he was agricultural attaché at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo, where he focused on trade policy, working to expand exports of U.S. livestock, dairy, and poultry products to Japan.

SeafoodSource: What are your priorities coming into the post? Are there any new initiatives that you intend to try?

Blamberg: Japan is a highly developed market. It’s the fourth-largest market for U.S. agricultural exports overall, and it’s the third-largest market for U.S. seafood products. Still, it’s a very dynamic and competitive market. One of the most significant changes to the market in the last few years has been Japan’s implementation of new trade agreements – the CPTTP [Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership], an agreement with the European Union, and of course, a bilateral agreement with the United States.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Restaurant menu shifts punishing seafood sales to foodservice sector

January 26, 2022 — The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled major restaurant menu shifts – some that favor seafood and others that don’t, according to Datassential Director Kelley Fechner.

Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.-based Datassential annually provides updates on menu trends in the restaurant industry at the National Fisheries Institute’s Global Seafood Market Conference (GSMC). At this year’s event in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A., Fechner said 60 percent of restaurants have shrunk their menus since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in the U.S., by an average of 10.2 percent.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Economic report for Alaska fishing industry economic offers some surprising numbers

January 25, 2022 — Where do most Alaska fishermen live? Which Alaska region is home to the most fishing boats?

The answers can be found in an easy to read, colorful economic report by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute for 2019-20 that includes all regions from Ketchikan to Kotzebue.

Many will be surprised to learn that nearly 40% of Alaska’s more than 31,000 fishermen live in the Southcentral towns of Anchorage, Kenai, Cordova, Seward, Homer, Valdez and Whittier. They earn more than half of their paychecks from fisheries outside of the region, with the Bristol Bay driftnet fishery being the main source of income.

Southeast’s 5,316 resident fishermen in nine communities own nearly one-third (2,655) of Alaska’s fishing fleet, more than any other region.

Overall, the industry includes 8,900 fishing vessels with 5,417 (61%) measuring in the 23-49 foot range. Each is a small (or big) business and if all the vessels were lined up bow to stern, they would stretch nearly 63 miles! The fishing boats harvested nearly 5.7 billion pounds of seafood in 2019, worth $2 billion.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Wells Fargo, Rabobank economists predict continuing supply-chain woes

January 24, 2022 — Robust U.S. demand for goods and ongoing transportation and logistical challenges will result in continued supply-chain challenges through the rest of the year, according to economists from Wells Fargo and Rabobank.

Speaking at the 2022 National Fisheries Institute Global Seafood Market Conference, Wells Fargo Senior Economist Tim Quinlan said strong retail sales in the United States, driven by rising wages and government stimulus, kept demand for goods high through 2021, putting pressure on the import market to keep pace. But delays due to COVID-19-related transportation slowdowns, workforce shortages, and lack of competition in the shipping industry prevented supply chains from catching up with demand, and delays will continue for the foreseeable future, Quinlan said.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Alaska seafood showing ‘partial recovery,’ says state seafood marketing arm

January 24, 2022 — Things were looking up for Alaska’s seafood industry in many ways in 2021. More people around the world took to buying and cooking seafood at home and seafood prices went up statewide.

But the industry is still struggling with problems brought on and exacerbated by COVID-19, like supply chain issues and mitigation costs. That’s according to a new report from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, the state’s seafood marketing arm.

“Our industry is still facing a lot of the challenges it faced both at the start of the pandemic in 2020 and even before that,” said Ashley Heimbigner, communications director for the institute.

She said this year’s report scrutinized numbers from 2019, since 2020 was such an anomaly.

Read the full story at KTOO

 

Restaurants’ headwinds include labor, inflation, but pent-up demand in their favor

January 21, 2022 — Restaurant operators face significant challenges – especially finding enough employees – but have pent-up dining demand in their favor, according to B. Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of the National Restaurant Association Research and Knowledge Group.

Restaurants’ labor costs are running at the highest rate in more than 40 years, Riehle said at the National Fisheries Institute’s Global Seafood Market Conference (GSMC) in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A., on Wednesday, 19 January.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Global shrimp production to surpass 5 million MT in 2022, CP Foods’ Robin McIntosh predicts

January 20, 2022 — Global shrimp production has continued to trend upward, with a panel of experts at the National Fisheries Institute’s Global Seafood Market Conference predicting that global shrimp production will exceed 5 million metric tons (MT) in 2022.

Current predictions put the production at 5.011 million MT in 2022, a significant increase over the 4.569 million MT grown in 2021, which itself was an increase over the 4.086 million MT produced in 2020. Globally, shrimp production has seen a tremendous upswing – in 2015, global shrimp production didn’t even reach 3 million MT.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

“Everyone’s crystal ball is broken” – COVID-19 has scrambled the industry’s ability to plan ahead

January 20, 2022 — Historically, conversations around logistics didn’t always reach the top level of the seafood industry’s decision-making hierarchy, but in the past two years, that has changed.

A Global Seafood Market Conference (GSMC) panel on Tuesday, 18 January, examined how logistics became top-of-mind for seafood executives, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has decimated the industry’s ability to use forecasting for business-planning purposes.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource