A market summary on Alaska’s crab fisheries, posted in December on the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s website, pronounced the crab market as “hot” and indeed it remains so.
Check out online purveyors of domestic king crab and you’ll find those legs and claws advertised for as much as $69.95 a pound.
“Captain’s limited reserve giant red king crab, Alaska’s largest king crab legs,” is the offer from FishEx, an Anchorage processor of wild seafood. “Sweet, succulent, and full of flavor,” the online advertisement boasts.
Or try the Captain’s Reserve red king crab legs & claws averaging half a pound per leg for $39.95 a pound, offers the same ad.
Other online deals include jumbo Bristol Bay red king crab legs and claws from 10th & M Seafoods in Anchorage at $34.95 a pound, and Island Seafoods in Kodiak has priced its 2016 catch of this crab at $36.95 a pound, or $235.95 for five pounds, shipping included.
The market summary produced by Juneau’s McDowell Group, and posted online at www.alaskaseafood.org, notes that “the crab market is hot. Wholesale prices for competing Canadian snow crab are at record levels, currently trading for nearly $8 a pound- far above the typical $4 to $6 range. Supplies are tight as Canada posted the lowest snow crab harvest since 1996 last year, and Alaska snow crab TACs (total allowable catches) are down 68 percent since the 2913-2014 season.”
10th& M Seafoods confirmed in December that while prices were up about $8 per pound the demand for Bristol Bay red king crab, a popular holiday gift for individuals and businesses alike, was at the same pace as a year ago.
The market summary notes that wholesale prices for red king crab rose 20 percent to 35 percent in 2016 and that seeing prices go this high, despite a strong U.S. dollar is an indication of strong demand.
Look for the crab fishery and more of the December market bulletins posted by ASMI online at http://www.alaskaseafood.org/industry/seafood-market-info/seafood-marketing-bulletin/
