Alaska Seafood

Alaska: Salmon Prices Show Marked Seasonal Variations

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Salmon prices at wholesale show marked seasonal variations for both wild and farmed fish. It’s a pattern that has been tracked for decades by Urner Barry, the nation’s oldest commodity market watcher in business since 1895. The prices tend to decline through June, July, August and September and they begin rising again from November through the following April or May.

Two things drive the well-established pattern, said market expert John Sackton who publishes Seafood.com, an Urner-Barry partner.

“There’s a growth cycle for farmed salmon when they eat more and grow faster at certain times of the year, and so the harvests, particularly those that come into the US market from Chile for example, really peak in June, July and August, which are our summer months and the winter months in Chile,” Sackton explained. “Then there is the opening of the wild salmon season each summer and all of a sudden you get a lot more diversity and availability of Alaskan salmon.”

Sackton said buyers of both wild sockeyes and farmed salmon are starting to push back a bit on high prices. That’s likely reflected in the $3.50 advances for the first reds at Copper River in mid-May, which was down 50 cents from last year’s starting price.

A big wild card for North American salmon this summer is the projected 72 million sockeye return at British Columbia’s Fraser River. Sackton said Japanese buyers, who have been somewhat priced out of the sockeye market in recent years because there has been so much demand elsewhere and a drop in the yen has made it harder for them to buy, are hoping that a big run will open up more opportunities for them. Even though they’ve been buying less, Japan is still an important part of a three legged stool.

www.thefishsite.com

Alaska: Slow Start to Alaska Salmon Season

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Trollers in Southeast Alaska provide fresh king salmon nearly year round, but the runs of reds and kings to the Copper River mark the “official start” of Alaska’s salmon season.

On May 15 the fleet of more than 570 fishermen set out their nets on a beautiful day for the first 12 hour opener amidst the usual hype for the first fish.

Prices for the first fish dipped a bit – Copper River Seafoods posted advance sockeye prices at $3.50 and $6.00 for kings; that compares to $4.00 and $6.00-$7.00, respectively, for last year’s opener.

In what has become a traditional rite of spring, Alaska Airlines whisked away the first 24,000 pounds of the famous fish to Seattle where pilots traversed a red carpet to hand deliver a 48 pound king salmon to three chefs for a cook-off at Sea-Tac Airport. At least five other jets carried fresh fish from Cordova to eager buyers throughout the US, as well as to Anchorage.

Sockeyes are by far Alaska’s most valuable salmon, typically worth about two-thirds of the total statewide salmon haul. But in terms of global supply, wild sockeye are rare creatures – they account for about 5 percent of all wild and farmed production, and represent just 15 percent of the world’s wild salmon harvest.

Alaska typically accounts for 70 percent or more of global sockeye production, with nearly half of that coming from Bristol Bay. The U.S. is the single largest market, purchasing nearly 44 percent by value in 2012. Japan and the U.K. are next, followed by Canada.

Alaska’s sockeye salmon catch this year is projected at nearly 34 million fish, five million more than last year. Average statewide price last year was $1.60, an increase of 30 cents from 2012.

www.thefishsite.com

Alaska: Good Prices for Halibut and Sablefish Harvesters

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US – The basic laws of supply and demand are resulting in a nice pay day for Alaska halibut and sablefish harvesters. Prices for both fish are up by more than a dollar a pound compared to the same time last year.

Fresh halibut has been moving smoothly and demand is steady since the fishery opened in early March, said a major Kodiak buyer, where dock prices were reported at $6 a pound for ten to 20 pounders, $6.25 for halibut weighing 20 to 40 pounds, and $6.50 for “40 ups.”

At Homer and in Southeast Alaska, halibut prices have yet to drop below six bucks a pound, said local processors. Dock prices at Homer last week ranged from $6.50 to $7.00 per pound “for very small loads.”

At Southeast, after reaching a high of $6.75 at Easter, halibut prices were $6.60/$6.40 /$6.10 per pound. Processors are reporting “strong halibut catches and lots of nice fish”. The fresh fish is being flown out almost daily from Southeast and distributed in small lots to markets all over the US. Alaska’s total halibut catch this year is close to 16 million pounds.

For sablefish, commonly called black cod, longliners are benefitting from “bare cupboards” and strong demand by buyers in Japan, where the bulk of Alaska’s catch goes. Last year, holdovers in freezers pushed prices down 40% to the $5 to $3 per pound range, depending on fish size.

Black cod is usually priced in five weights, ranging from under three pounds to over seven pounds. At Kodiak the breakout was $6.75 – $5.75 – $5.00 -$4.50 and $4.00. Sablefish prices at Homer were running between $4 and $7 a pound. Southeast processors reported prices at $5.30 to $7 a pound at the docks. Alaska’s sablefish catch this year is about 24 million pounds. Most deliveries are going to Seward, followed by Kodiak and Homer.

www.thefishsite.com

Alaska’s Halibut and Black Cod Harvest Season Opens Saturday

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Alaska’s wild halibut and black cod (sablefish) harvest season opens Saturday, March 8, 2014 at 12:00 PM local time. Statewide Total Allowable Catch (TAC) limits for Alaska halibut and black cod are set at 16.8 million pounds and 33.6 million pounds respectively. Alaska is home to over 95% of the Pacific halibut and over 70% of the black cod harvested in the United States. Like all species of Alaska seafood, Alaska halibut and black cod are wild and sustainable, as mandated by the Alaska Constitution. Alaska’s science-based fishery management practices are considered a world model.

The International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) is responsible for setting the annual halibut harvest limit based on stock assessments and halibut biology, and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) makes allocative decisions based on that quota. The Alaska black cod fisheries are both federally and state managed, with the NPFMC reviewing the annual stock assessment and harvest limits for fisheries in federal waters and the State of Alaska managing the fisheries in state waters.

The largest of all flatfish, Alaska halibut is prized for its mild, sweet flavor, firm texture, and spectacular results whether grilled, roasted, sautéed, or poached. Alaska black cod offers a beautiful snow-white fillet, perfect flake, and succulent velvety texture. Along with being excellent roasted, sautéed, and poached, Alaska black cod is ideal for smoking.

www.alaskaseafood.org

US (AK): Proposed 2014 Halibut Catch Down 21 per cent

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The recommendations for next year’s halibut catches are down again for all regions in the USA except Southeast Alaska.

Fishery scientists with the International Pacific Halibut Commission have recommended a 2014 coast wide commercial catch total of 24.45 million pounds, a 21% decrease from the 31 million pounds allowed for this year. That includes catches in Alaska, British Columbia and the Pacific Coast states.

In a summation at a meeting in Seattle last week, the IPHC said: “The results of the 2013 stock assessment indicate that the Pacific halibut stock has been declining continuously over much of the last decade as a result of decreasing size-at-age, as well as recruitment strengths that are much smaller than those observed through the 1980s and 1990s.”

Here are the proposed catch limits for Alaska regions in millions of pounds, compared to the totals from 2013 in parentheses: Southeast Alaska (2C) – 4.16 (2.97); Central Gulf (3A) – 9.43 (11.03); Western Gulf (3B) – 2.84 (4.29); Alaska Peninsula (4A) – 0.85 (1.33); Aleutian Islands region (4B) – 0.82 (1.45); Bering Sea (4CDE) 0.64 (1.94).

Final decisions on the catch limits, season start date and regulation changes will be made by the IPHC at its annual meeting, Jan. 13-17 in Seattle. While the Pacific halibut catches have been declining for decade, the value of the fishery has been on a downward trend for the past four years.

Near the end of each year bills are sent out to Alaska longliners who hold shares of the halibut and sablefish (black cod) catches. They are required to pay an annual fee to the federal government to cover the costs for managing and enforcing those fisheries. The fee, which is capped at three percent, is based on dock prices and averaged across the state.

The billings were mailed out in late November to 2,024 fishermen, 90 fewer than last year, according to Troie Zuniga, fee coordinator for NOAA Fisheries in Juneau.

This year the combined halibut and sablefish fisheries paid a fee of 2.8%, which yielded $5 million for coverage costs.

For halibut, the overall dockside value of the 2013 fishery was $105 million, and about $72 million for black cod.

“That’s about $32 million lower than the 2012 value for halibut and $37 million lower for black cod,” Zuniga said, adding that it reflects a fishery value decline of nearly 28 percent over four years.

In terms of fish prices, the average for halibut this year was $5.06 per pound compared to $5.87 last year; for sablefish, an average price of $2.84 per pound is a drop from $4.11 in 2013.

www.thefishsite.com

Фестиваль черной трески из Аляски в трех московских ресторанах

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12 декабря в Москве начнется Фестиваль черной трески из Аляски, можно будет попробоваить два разных оригинальных сета с черной треской от двух московских шеф поваров.

Черная треска по праву считается Королевой Аляски, ее мясо славится высоким содержанием жирных кислот Омега-3, эта редкая рыба превосходный источник высококачественного белка. Сладковатый, нежный и в то же время чрезвычайно насыщенный вкус аляскинской черной трески можно попробовать в ресторанах Gastronomica Fish и Florentini Coutry Cafe в ”королевском сете” из трех блюд от от бренд-шефа ресторанного холдинга  “Gastronomica”  Артема Добровольского, в сет входят карпаччо, суп и стейк.

В рыбном ресторане Fish Point c 17 по 31 декабря можно оценить сет из черной трески от шеф повара Ильи Татьянко. В сет входит карпаччо из черной трески, консоме из черной трески с мини-овощами, томленое филе черной трески на подушке их мятого картофеля с вялеными овощами и спаржей.

Фестиваль черной трески проходит при поддержке Института маркетинга морепродуктов Аляски. Больше информации о морепродуктах Аляски на сайтах www.alaskaseafood.ru, www.alaskaseafood.org 

Alaskan Salmon Catch Breaks Record

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As expected, Alaska’s 2013 salmon catch is one for the record books. Early tallies by state fishery managers show that fishermen caught 272 million salmon this summer, smashing the previous record of 221 salmon in 2005. The fishery was powered by a whopping catch of 219 million pinks.

In terms of money, the preliminary harvest value of $691 ranks second to the $724 million of 1988, called an “outlier” season by salmon managers. They also predict that once all post season bonuses and price adjustments are determined by salmon processors, the 2013 season could be the most valuable salmon harvest in Alaska’s history.

Source: www.thefishsite.com

Salmon roe prices will decrease

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Vitaly Kornev, President of the Association of Fish Market Industrial and Commercial Enterprises, said that after the new year the price of salmon roe in Russia may collapse.

Now, there is enough salmon roe on the Russian market, but the demand for it is not high because of the high price (about 1050-1100 rubles per kilo) .

Kornev said that in 2013/2014 the situation may be the same as it was in 2010/2011, when before New Year 140-gram can of salmon roe was supplied to retailers for 200 rubles, and in May 2011 it was sold for 99 rubles.

Usually, the price for salmon roe are determined by the volumes of harvest in Russia, but this year the most part of fish apparently went to Alaska shores, where very high catch was recorded this year. Salmon roe from Alaska will be supplied to Russia in the end of October.

Source: www.sfera.fm

Russia has arranged salmon roe delivery from the USA

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Wholesale prices for salmon roe, which had soared by 70 percent this summer due to a downfallen beginning of the salmon fishing season, have rolled back and may go down even more. A number of processors have purchased almost 1,500 tons of frozen salmon roe in the USA; the roe is offered at the Moscow wholesale market at the price of 800-900 rubles per kilo, while the average price is 1,200-1,300 rubles per kilo.

The average wholesale salmon roe price in Kamchatka by the end of September amounted to 1,500-1,700 rubles per kilo, according to Federal Fishing Agency. “The salmon roe value has almost come back, the aggregate increase has not exceeded 10 percent”, says Alexander Saveliev, spokesman of Rosrybolovstvo. As Kommersant wrote on July 22, due to a downfallen beginning of the salmon fishing season, the wholesale salmon roe prices in Kamchatka region, which provides for 40-60 percent of salmon roe production, had soared by almost 70 percent, up to 2,100-2,500 rubles per kilo. “By the middle of the fishing season the volume of salmon harvest has increased and now almost reached 400 thousand tons. The market will receive about 15-16 thousand tons of salmon roe, which is enough to satisfy the domestic demand”, says Mr. Saveliev explaining the reasons for the drop in prices. According to Mr. Saveliev, in September the market received a large volume of salmon roe, primarily from Sakhalin, where the fishing season was successful. However, in central Russia the average wholesale prices for salmon roe range from 1,200 to 1,300 rubles per kilo, which is lower than in Kamchatka. Large processors say that the prices dropped because of the increased import of roe in skeins or frozen roe from the United States.

According to the Federal Customs Service, as of August the volume of such imported roe worth more than $13 million almost reached 1,500 tons. The declared customs value of 89 percent of the salmon roe was $7-9 per kilo. “In Moscow the wholesale price for this roe is 800-900 rubles per kilo. The customs clearance price conveys the suggestion that this is either the last year’s stock since the fresh roe price at actions this year is $18-25 per kilo, or the importers have underestimated the customs value and the government has not received 170 million rubles as duties and VAT”, indignantly remarks Alexander Saveliev.

The annual output of processed packaged salmon roe in Russia is 11-13 thousand tons, which is 28.6-30 billion rubles per year (at processors’ prices including VAT).

The market participants believe that such situation results from the conflict between the processors from the central region and the Far East. Herman Zverev, head of the Fishery and Aquiculture Commission of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, told Kommersant that Kamchatka and Sakhalin producers had put into operation a large number of on-site processing plants and facilities, having considerably reduced the volume of supply of green salmon roe to the processors in the Central Federal Region (CFR). “If earlier producers had to sell at least 30-35% of green salmon roe on the price terms offered by the processors from the European part of Russia, now they can dictate terms to the processors”, remarked the expert.

This is confirmed by the statistical data: in 2010-2011 deliveries of green salmon roe to the European part of Russia amounted to about 4,000 tons per year. In 2012 this volume went down to 1,500 tons. “Processors in the Central Federal Region had nothing to do but purchase salmon roe from abroad, all the more so at a lower price. Judging by the volume of import, they have just made up for the lack of green salmon roe”, assuredly said one of the representatives of the industry.

But the conflict may have more serious consequences both for the producers and processors and the industry as a whole. The experts of the Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIIRO) said that in Alaska, as well as in Russia, the catch was low in the beginning of the salmon fishing season, but at the end the situation has improved, and as a result Alaskan fishermen managed to catch about 600 thousand tons of pink salmon alone, which will provide an average roe output of about 24 thousand tons. “Since the demand for salmon roe in the United States is scanty, significant volumes of salmon roe will be exported, including export to Russia”, believes Mikhail Glubokovsky, Director of VNIIRO. According to the expert, this means that the salmon roe price may go down even more, and therefore neither producers nor processors would be able to get a decent margin.

Source: Svetlana Mentiukova, Kommersant Newspaper

 

Alaska Seafood on the Russian market

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Interview with Andrew Brown, representative of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute in Russia and Ukraine

Sfera Magazine

 

Years ago, Alaska was famous only for its gold mines, now this state is also known for the abundance of fish and seafood, which are exported to many countries around the world. Andrew Brown, a representative of Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute in Russia and Ukraine tells about Alaska Seafood.

 

Q.: Andrew, what is the main difference between Alaska fish and seafood and products that other countries supply?

A.: First of all, all these products are natural. Alaska fish and seafood grow in the wild. The diet of Alaska fish and seafood does not include artificial feed – that was forbidden by a state law in 1990.

In addition, the habitat of Alaska fish and seafood is thousands of kilometers from ecologically fragile areas, the Alaska water is one of the cleanest in the world.

Another advantage of Alaska seafood is high-quality catch. Alaska fishing industry meets all modern technical specifications. Fish and seafood are frozen almost immediately after the catch. Different species are caught in different seasons; and thanks to freezing, high-quality Alaska fish ans seafood are available to customers around the world all year round.

Alaska fish and seafood are famous for its unique taste, quality and color of the meat. The reason of that is their natural habitat and diet. If you are looking for a product that contains a lot of healthy omega-3 fatty acids, you should consider Alaska fish and seafood. Salmon migrates from a freshwater river to the ocean and then returns back to spawn, this trip may take thousands of kilometers. At the moment of catching the fish is very fit and contains a lot of omega-3 fatty acids.

Finally, Alaska is an ideal system of fisheries management, one of the main goals is to preserve natural resources for future generations. Harvest of fish and seafood here is strictly controlled. For example, in Alaska there is a law on anadromous fish species, according to which, any construction works near salmon streams and rivers must be pre-approved by Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The system of fisheries in Alaska is well established and has been effectively operating for many years. Fisheries policy, regulations, and fishing quotas are determined by the State Board of Fisheries.

 

Q.: What is the volume of Alaska seafood export? Which countries are the key importers of Alaska seafood?

A.: In 2012 the total harvest in Alaska was approximately 2.5 million MT of fish and seafood. 51 % of the catch was pollock, 29% – salmon, 1% – black cod. About 40% of the catch was exported. In 2011, exports of fish and seafood from Alaska totaled 1,027,125.9 MT.

Key exports countries Asian countries: China, Japan and Korea. Also, a large amount of fish and seafood is exported to European countries.

 

A.: What are about volumes of fish and seafood that were exported from Alaska to Russia?

Q.: In 2011, Russia exported 9181 MT of fish and seafood; compared with 2010 an increase of exports was 29%. Mostly, it is Alaska pollock – 5009 MT , mainly in the form of surimi (3851 MT). Import of pollock in Russia is growing – pollock import increased by 172% in 2011 compared to 2010.

Also, green roe from Alaska is exported to Russia (2,026 MT in 2011).

Over the past few years, the consumption of black cod, a very rare fish in the premium segment, has increased. Black cod is primarily sold in HRI sector. From 2010 to 2011, exports of black cod from Alaska grew by 297% (311 MT).

 

Q.: What products are you actively developing in Russia now?

A.: In Russia, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is mainly engaged in the development and promotion of premium fish segment, such as black cod and wild Alaskan salmon. Also, we promote salmon roe made from Alaska raw materials.

 

Q.: You have mentioned black cod. Tell us about that fish.

A.: Black cod live only in one region of the ocean, in addition, it has a distinctive rich flavor.

 

A.: What are the channels of the work in Russia?

Q.: Alaska fish is presented in each segment of the Russian fish market: pollock, sold in usual supermarkets, is a fish for a simple family dinner. In many supermarkets you can buy salmon roe, raw materials for which are imported from Alaska. In premium segment supermarkets such as “Azbuka  Vkusa”, ” Globus Gourmet “, ” Gastronom № 1″ in GUM you can buy black cod from Alaska. Also, black cod is on the menu of many restaurants.

 

Q.: What are the prospects of working with Russia?

A.: Now in Russia we can see a very strong trend for a healthy lifestyle and diet, especially it is seen in big cities. Due to the fact that Alaska fish and seafood grow in the wild in ecologically pure environment and have a lot of healthy benefits, they fit perfectly into the concept of healthy nutrition.

More and more people begin to appreciate wild fish compared to farmed fish, in particular, this concerns salmon. More restaurants introduce black cod in their menu.  And red caviar is also a popular product on the Russian market.

So the prospects for Alaska seafood in the Russian market are quite positive.

Source: www.sfera.fm