Saving Seafood

Survey finds voters support expanding US aquaculture

June 7, 2022 — A survey commissioned by Stronger America Through Seafood (SATS) found a strong majority of likely voters would support lawmakers expanding opportunities for offshore fish farms.

The survey, cundected by Echelon Insights and released on 6 June, was conducted in May 2022 and surveyed 1,020 people nationwide. According to the results, more than 60 percent of respondents said they would be more favorable toward their U.S. representative if they backed legislation to increase access to offshore waters for American businesses.

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Walton Family Foundation poll finds Americans want sustainable seafood

June 7, 2022 — A new poll commissioned by the Walton Family Foundation has found that a majority of Americans want assurances that the seafood they’re eating is sustainable.

The poll, performed by Morning Consult, surveyed 2,210 adults nationally and found that consumers felt the sourcing and supply chain of meats and seafoods is important. According to the survey, 72 percent of consumers support increasing the traceability of seafood, and sustainability was the second-most important factor in purchasing seafood – behind only price.

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Russian seafood market facing rising uncertainty

June 3, 2022 — The future of the Russian seafood market remains unclear as the country’s invasion of Ukraine continues, with a decline of household incomes forcing a rebuild of business models in premium segments.

The economic uncertainty that emerged in late February and early March due to sanctions imposed on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine led the government to quickly tighten its control over consumer markets. The Russian ruble also heavily depreciated against the euro and U.S. dollar, which coincided with an exodus of major Western brands from Russia, all of which have hurt economic stability and impacted consumer behavior.

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US Senate nixes restaurant industry rescue package

May 24, 2022 — The U.S. Senate ended the restaurant industry’s hopes of receiving additional government funding to compensate it for COVID-19-related operational difficulties on 19 May.

The Senate voted against passing the Small Business COVID Relief Act of 2022 (S. 4008), ending any realistic possibility it will replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF).

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Study finds California shellfish farmers burdened by bureaucracy

May 24, 2022 — A study on shellfish farmers in the U.S. state of California, conducted by researchers at Oregon State University, found that farmers need additional resources and less red tape in order to overcome current and future environmental challenges.

Farmers from California’s Humboldt Bay, Point Reyes, and the Central Coast were interviewed for the study, which also involved researchers from San Diego State University.

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Rabobank: Global seafood trade value rebounds to USD 164 billion

May 23, 2022 — Soaring demand for fishery and aquaculture products has positioned seafood as the most globally traded animal protein, with a trade value of USD 164 billion (EUR 155.8 billion) in 2021, increasing by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 2.4 percent in the 10-year period 2011-2021, according to the latest seafood trade map and report compiled by Rabobank.

The “2021 World Seafood Map” found that close to half of last year’s trade flowed to the European Union, the United States, and China, whose combined imports surpassed USD 80 billion (EUR 76 billion). According to the analysis, the seafood trade was roughly 3.6 times the size of beef trade (the second most traded animal protein) in 2021, five times the size of the global pork trade, and eight times that of the poultry trade. It also confirmed that there were more than 55 trade flows each valued over USD 400 million (EUR 380 million) a year, and an additional 19 trade flows valued between USD 200 million and USD 400 million (EUR 190 million and EUR 380 million) each.

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Strict COVID-19 controls posing long-term challenge for Chinese economy

May 20, 2022 — The closure of a major seafood market in the Chinese capital looks set to disrupt seafood trade as Beijing edges towards an extended lockdown to contain the spread of a COVID-19 outbreak in the Chinese capital.

Beijing’s Jingshen Seafood Market has been closed since 17 May, after workers there were sickened by a COVID-19 strain traced back to seafood imported into the nearby city of Tianjin. The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce and the Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued a ban on any activity in the market while also setting stringent testing requirements for truck drivers entering Beijing with food and seafood products.

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Scotland’s seafood industry fears a return to border chaos

May 19, 2022 — The U.K. government’s intention to introduce new legislation that makes swift changes to the post-Brexit rules surrounding the checking of goods at the Irish border has drawn fire from Scotland’s seafood industry, particularly the farmed salmon sector.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told the House of Commons on 17 May that the Northern Ireland Protocol, introduced in 2021, had caused unforeseen problems, including “unnecessary bureaucracy” for goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Truss said that a proposed Northern Ireland Protocol Bill would mean that British goods destined for sale in Northern Ireland would only have to meet U.K. standards, and not those of the European Union. She said that while the government’s preference is to reach a negotiated outcome with the E.U. and that months of talks had already taken place, the urgency of the situation meant that the government would be prepared to act without reaching such an agreement.

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Top 10 list of most-consumed seafood species in US revealed

May 17, 2022 — Consumption of seafood per capita among American consumers sunk slightly in 2020 compared to 2019, due in large part to the disruptions wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the National Fisheries Institute’s (NFI) recently-released top 10 list.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) latest Fisheries of the United States report – which NFI uses to compose its routine top species breakdown – found that Americans consumed 19 pounds of seafood per capita in 2020, down from the 19.3-pound average tallied in 2019.

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European exporters avoiding China due to pricing, access problems

May 17, 2022 — There are signs that European exporters are turning away from the Chinese market, according to numerous seafood executives interviewed at the 2022 Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona, Spain in late April.

Difficulties with port backups due to more-stringent food safety checks and the threat of being banned from the Chinese marketplace if traces of COVID-19 are found on their products have scared some suppliers away from shipping to China. Others are simply realizing higher prices in the European market.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource