Extraordinary market challenges notwithstanding, Alaska seafood now ranks as the most popular protein on menus of the top 500 domestic restaurant chains, says the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.
After years of holding steady in second place among protein brands, Alaska seafood has outranked Angus beef, Kobe beef, Louisiana seafood and more, says ASMI’s executive director, Alexa Tonkovich, in ASMI’s 2016 annual report.
ASMI attributes that success to foodservice promotions that have given a wide variety of consumers a positive impression of the Alaska seafood brand. Ninety-four person of consumers are now more likely to order a seafood dish when the word “Alaska” is used on the menu, and 87 percent of consumers are more likely to order such dishes if the Alaska Seafood logo is on the menu, the report said.
In the midst of global currency challenges, and Alaska’s own fiscal crisis, the seafood industry remained an asset in the state’s financial portfolio in 2016, with some 60,000 residents and non-residents in Alaska’s seafood industry earning $1.6 billion in annual labor income, based on 2013 and 2014 averages, the report said.
The workforce included some 31,580 fishermen, mostly Alaskans, working as skippers and crew, operating a fleet of 8,600 boats.
The seafood industry provided jobs statewide, with over 10,000 full time equivalent jobs in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands, nearly 10,000 jobs in Southeast Alaska, over 8,000 jobs in Kodiak, 7,000 jobs in Southcentral Alaska, over 4,500 jobs in Bristol Bay and nearly 1,000 jobs in the Arctic and Yukon Kuskokwim regions, ASMI said.
One key challenge has been the strong U.S. dollar, which makes Alaska seafood more expensive relative to foreign competitors.
Despite lower ex-vessel values resulting from the strong dollar and other factors, the 2015 preliminary ex-vessel value was still 19 percent higher than the inflation-adjusted 2003 value –the last year when the U.S. dollar was that strong.
The Russian embargo on importing food products from the United States extended to the European Union, and large volumes of farmed Norwegian salmon have been redirected to other markets, creating more competition for Alaska salmon. Russian was the largest importer of Norwegian salmon prior to the embargo, which began in mid-2014.
Following the November 2015 terrorist attack in Paris and the bombing of the Brussels airport in March 2016, nine Alaska co-exhibitors withdrew from Seafood Expo Global in Brussels. Projected show sales dropped nearly 50 percent compared to the previous year, from $500 million to $249.2 million, the report said.
In addition to currency pressures, the European whitefish market is more competitive since the late-2013 Marine Stewardship Council certification of Russia’s largest pollock fishery. This more than doubled the supply of pollock fillets available to buyers in Europe who would purchase only MSC certified fish and led to lower prices for Alaska Pollock fillets, and had an impact on the value of Alaska sole as well.
Other challenges included increasingly volatile Alaska salmon harvests, Russian crab competing with Alaska crab, the decline of crab quotas during the 2016-2017 season, consumer and buyer education, market access and market development.
On the bright side, with U.S. Department of Agriculture Market Access Program support, ASMI coordinated sales of over 120 tons of seafood through five online promotions in China in 2016. A trade mission to Thailand and Vietnam in February 2016, coordinated by ASMI with funds from the USDA Foreign agriculture Service Emerging Markets Program, resulted in $760,000 in Alaska seafood sales. Then in response to the import ban in Russia, ASMI expanded the Eastern Europe program to include Romania, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia in Meanwhile Alaska Responsible Fisheries Management became the first program worldwide to gain Global Sustainable seafood Initiative recognition in July 2016.
That recognition will be useful to provide markets and customers assurance that Responsible Fisheries Management Certification is a credible and relevant seafood certification program, the report said.
Learn more about ASMI at
www.alaskaseafood.org
Read the annual report online at
https://indd.adobe.com/view/
46b34fd5-da1f-4257-ae90-ada17dd5943c
