Finfish Updates

Alaska pollock

Alaska’s processors are benefiting from the shortage of product from Russian waters

Four years ago, the American Fisheries Act slipped through Congress without a vote and doled out Alaska’s prodigious bottomfish resource to a handful of companies. Today, the picture for Alaska’s pollock producers has never been prettier. 

This year started with news that the quota for the world’s largest food-fish fishery was going to be raised 7 percent, or 85,000 metric tons, to almost 1.5 million metric tons — the highest level since American boats started fishing for pollock in the mid-1980s. Biologists say the resource is in such incredibly good shape that the quota could have been set almost 1 million metric tons higher.

But a 2-million-metric-ton “eco-system” cap on bottomfish harvests in the Bering Sea prevented that from happening. A big quota increase would also mean that new fishermen and processors could have a crack at pollock, the last thing Alaska’s current pollock players want.

While Alaska’s pollock resource is growing, on the other side of the Bering Sea, Russia’s pollock fishery, which used to be twice the size of Alaska’s, keeps shrinking. With the big Sea of Okhotsk fishery practically shut down, Russia’s pollock catch this year could be less than 1 million metric tons.

“The Russians are really trying to crack down on pollock poaching,” reports one pollock buyer. “They’re checking boats, and they’re checking containers before they leave the country.”

The good news got even better in late January, when the European Union banned imports of Chinese seafood after finding traces of chloramphenicol, a banned antibiotic, in Chinese shrimp. European

buyers scrambled to stock up on Chinese pollock fillets, which are processed from Russian H&G fish, before the ban went into effect, but before long they were running to Alaska in search of product. And the Alaskans, of course, were only too happy to help.

For the first five months of this year, U.S. exports of Alaska pollock fillets surged more than 40 percent, to almost 24,000 metric tons. Exports to Germany, the biggest buyer, doubled, to more than 11,000 metric tons, while exports to the Netherlands shot up tenfold, from 500 metric tons to 5,000 metric tons.

To no one’s surprise, the growing demand from Europe, as well as a euro that has increased 12 percent in value against the dollar, has led to a sharp increase in the price Alaska processors are getting for their pollock. The average price for single-frozen blocks, for example, rose from 95 cents a pound at the beginning of the year to $1.04 a pound by late July.

The price of single-frozen shatterpacks has risen even more, as most Alaska producers concentrated on putting up surimi and blocks during the “A” season. Two- to 4-ounce shatterpack fillets, which started the year at $1.10, were bringing $1.40 a pound to Alaska pollock producers this July. The higher price for shatterpacks should lead to more shatterpack production during the “B” season, which got under way in July.

Through mid-July, Alaska pollock processors had produced about 52,000 metric tons of fillets and almost 100,000 metric tons of surimi. Look for a higher percentage of fillet production in the “B” season, as fillet prices have climbed higher than surimi prices. 

On the import side of the pollock picture, the U.S. supply of double-frozen fillets from China surged in spite of the reduction in Russian raw material, since product that would normally go to the European Union came to the United States instead. Through May, U.S. imports of pollock fillets and blocks from China were up more than 60 percent, to 31,500 metric tons.

The increase in imports has kept a lid on the price of double-frozen fillets. For the first seven months of the year, the U.S. price of double-frozen blocks has held steady at 85 cents a pound. The price of double-frozen IQF fillets has also held relatively steady at 95 cents to $1 a pound for larger sizes.       

Supplies of single-frozen product from Russian factory trawlers have decreased dramatically, as Russian product has been diverted to the European Union. Through May, imports from Russia dropped from more than 4,000 metric tons to just 1,400 metric tons.

The European Union’s decision in July to let Chinese processors start exporting fillets again should settle the pollock market down in the latter half of 2002 and into 2003. Still, the bottom line is that there will be less pollock because of the decline in Russian catches, which will mean the higher prices should hold.

Catches could be increased in Alaska, but the pollock producers will be feeling pressure to hold the line and keep the quota close to the 2002 level. 

The last time pollock prices ran up, in early 1999, they collapsed a few months later.  Don’t count on that happening this time. 

“The difference now is that there really is a shortage of supply,” says one Alaska processor. “Last time there wasn’t.”

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Monkfish

Uncertainty drives up prices as demand from the U.S. and Korean markets remains strong

The increasing acrimony among fisheries managers, fishermen and environmental groups reached new levels this May with the emergency shutdown of the monkfish fishery at the peak of the fishing season.

Monk fishermen had just put their nets in the water May 1, the first day of the new fishing year, and the National Marine Fisheries Service  had them heading back to port. Lawyers for the beleaguered agency had decided that a “legal snag” made the new management plan vulnerable to yet another lawsuit by environmental groups.

To say that monk fishermen were furious is an understatement.

Recognizing that NMFS had little data on the status of monkfish stocks, fishermen and processors ponied up money last year to launch a cooperative research effort that included industry, NMFS and fisheries scientists at several universities. The initiative was considered a model for the fishing industry. Scientists said stocks were recovering faster than previously thought. The fishermen had high hopes for this year’s fishery.

Those hopes were dashed, however, by what one processor called “the most egregious mistreatment of legitimate businesses committed by NMFS since the agency was created.” 

The problem was most severe for fishermen from southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, who have limited entry permits that allow them to fish for monkfish 40 days a year. These fishermen typically fish most of those days in May and June, when monks are schooling and are easier to catch.

By the time fishermen were finally told they could start fishing again on May 17, both they and processors complained they would suffer losses that could run into tens of millions of dollars. In recent years, exports of monkfish have doubled to more than 8,000 metric tons, thanks to an explosion in demand from South Korea, which now accounts for 75 percent of all U.S. monkfish exports.

Two months earlier NMFS essentially shut down the gillnet fishery for monkfish off North Carolina for the foreseeable future after a rash of dead sea turtles washed up on area beaches in the spring of 2000, though the industry had worked out a program with the agency to avoid interaction with the turtles. 

The uncertainty over monkfish landings drove prices up this spring on the Portland, Maine, Fish Exchange to more than $3 a pound for large skin-on tails, about a $1 a pound higher than normal. Prices on the Fulton Fish Market, meanwhile, reached $3.50 this spring before summer landings drove prices for large tails back down to $2.75.

Look for prices to distributors for skin-on monk tails to run between $2.50 and $3.25 a pound as demand from both Korea and the U.S. market should be strong for the available supply.

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Striped Bass

Like production, prices for farmed striped bass have remained fairly flat this year

At the new Salamander Restau-rant in Boston, Chef Stan Frankenthaler charges $32 for a dinner entrée of farmed striped bass, which he deep-fries and serves with steamed rice, choi and green-banana curry.

Like a lot of other white tablecloth chefs, Frankenthaler uses small striped bass that are less than 2 pounds. Striped bass is among the few high-quality species perfect for whole fish presentations that chefs can find fresh all year round.

Japanese and Chinese chefs like farmed striped bass, too. The Japanese like to buy the bigger fish, which they usually slice and serve raw as sashimi, while the Chinese restaurants like to steam it whole.

So if farmed striped bass is so popular and some farmers can get prices that average about $3 a pound for whole fish, why aren’t farmers growing more of it?

“It’s a hard fish to grow,” says the marketing manager of the largest

hybrid striped bass farm in the country. His farm, located in the desert not far from Palm Springs, Calif., this year will produce about 1,500 metric tons of stripers in tanks, the same amount it did last year. The farm is consistently profitable, and the owners have thought about building another farm in Arizona, but that would require a hefty, multi-million dollar investment.

It’s cheaper to grow stripers in ponds, which is what they do in the Southeast, but farmers there have never made enough of a return to justify a large-scale expansion. U.S. production of farmed striped bass stays stuck at about 4,500 metric tons a year.

Like production, prices for farmed stripers have remained fairly flat. Tank-raised fresh, whole fish have been selling to distributors at $2.85 to $3.25 a pound, depending on size (more for big fish). Live fish have been selling for $4 to $5 a pound delivered to Los Angeles.

Pond-raised stripers average about $2.50 to $2.75 a pound for whole fish, although prices have dipped lower during short-term gluts. Look for pricing of farmed stripers to remain very similar in 2003.

On the wild side, catches of striped bass from the important Chesapeake Bay fishery this year will be down, as quotas have been reduced. The combined Virginia and Maryland 2002 quotas are about 1,700 metric tons, a reduction of about 10 percent. That should put 2002 total landings at about 3,000 metric tons. Don’t

expect an increase in 2003, as fisheries managers are under pressure to allocate more fish to recreational fishermen and stocks are not

expected to increase.

Wild stripers started the year at $3 a pound for whole fish, but heavy landings in the spring fishery drove prices below $2. Look for prices to average about $2 to $2.50 this fall when landings from the Chesapeake Bay pick up again.

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Tilapia

The outlook for fresh tilapia is for continued, moderate supply increases

Compared to the struggles of the salmon industry and the dogfight the catfish farmers are in, the tilapia business seems positively tranquil.

After growing an average of almost 40 percent the past two years, imports of fresh tilapia fillets from Latin America through May were up a relatively modest 22 percent to 5,468 metric tons, or about 500,000 to 600,000 pounds a week. The big increases from Ecuador, the leading supplier of fresh fillets, appear to have moderated, increasing only 21 percent to about 2,700 metric tons.

Fresh fillet imports from Costa Rica declined slightly to 1,363 metric tons. Imports from Honduras, on the other hand, doubled to just over 1,000 metric tons, as the country’s two largest producers both increased their production.

The outlook for fresh tilapia is for continued increases in supply,

although it is doubtful they’ll be growing at 40 percent a year anytime soon. The producers (only five companies supply more than 90 percent of the fresh tilapia imports) seem committed to keeping a rein on supplies to keep market prices at profitable levels. As tilapia is one of the more profitable fish to farm these days, there always seem to be some big projects on the drawing board.

“We can keep the supply growing 20 to 30 percent a year and keep prices at their current levels,” says one tilapia importer this summer. “We’ve still barely begun to tap markets in the Midwest and on the West Coast.”

This July, ex-importer prices of fresh, skinless boneless fillets were up slightly to $3.10 to $3.30 a pound. Look for prices to stay at this level in the near future.

The market for frozen tilapia fillets has been more of a mixed bag. Imports of frozen fillets were up

almost 50 percent to about 4,000 metric tons through May. Most of the increase was due to a doubling of Chinese imports to approximately 1,500 metric tons. A high percentage of the Chinese imports have been small, 2-4 ounce fillets, which have remained weak at $1.80 a pound.

Supplies of larger frozen tilapia

fillets were tighter, with 7-9 ounce fillets from Taiwan and China selling for $2.50 to $2.55 a pound this July. CO-treated “izumi-dai” fillets were running about 20 cents to 30 cents a pound more. Imports of frozen tilapia fillets from Indonesia were also up, about 20 percent to roughly 1,000 metric tons.

Canadian authorities are cracking down on the imports of CO-treated tilapia fillets. Canada has banned the imports of CO-treated seafood for several years; however, enforcement efforts have been focused mainly on tuna. Now it appears that the health inspectors are focusing their efforts on “izumi-dai” fillets, which are very popular in sushi bars. “It’s been great for our business,” says one Latin American producer who has started to ship fresh tilapia fillets to Canada.

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Pacific Salmon

An abundance of fish goes begging due to a lack of fishermen and processors

Catches of wild salmon from Alaska, which typically account for more than 95 percent of the U.S. salmon harvest, will be down this year. But the reason for the decline is not a lack of fish; it’s a lack of fishermen and processors.

Hard-pressed salmon processors, having finally decided they absolutely cannot afford to lose money for yet another season, have held the line on prices to fishermen.

As a result, in some salmon fisheries around Alaska, fishermen stayed on the beach because the low prices made salmon fishing futile. In Bristol Bay, for example, the state’s biggest money fishery, almost half the fleet never got wet. 

Some Alaska processors also have decided to limit their production of salmon for which they don’t already have a market.

That has led processors to take a pass on pinks,  a high-volume, low-value species that is getting harder and harder to market at any price.

At the end of July, about midway through the season, Alaska salmon fishermen had landed almost 50 million fish, almost half of which were sockeyes.

That makes it unlikely fishermen will come close to last year’s harvest of 175 million fish. This year’s sockeye harvest, which could be just 22 million fish, would be the lowest since 1979.

In spite of the small sockeye catch, processors were paying only 40 cents to 60 cents a pound in most sockeye fisheries, although prices rose to 80 cents for the last reds from the Southeast.

Although Japanese buyers were showing interest for the small pack, processors were trying to move as many fresh sockeyes as possible. Prices to retailers averaged about $2.50 a pound for H&G fish and $4.50 to $5 for fillets. 

Kings were a great buy this summer, as there were good supplies from both Alaska and the West Coast troll fisheries. Fishermen were getting less than $1 a pound at one point for small kings from California, which prompted one retailer there to run an ad for king salmon at 99 cents a pound.

By late July, as landings tailed off, fresh prices to distributors rose to $2.50 a pound for 11s and up and $4.50 for fillets.

After paying almost 40 cents a pound to fishermen for chums last year and losing their shirts, Alaska processors were offering only 15 cents to 20 cents for chums this year.

At those prices, processors could still make money selling fresh chums to retailers at 75 cents a pound, delivered, because of a reasonably good egg market.

In spite of their efforts to move as many chums as possible to the fresh market, chums were piling up in cold storages, where some processors still had fish left from last season.

Chums have the lowest oil content of the Pacific salmon,  making them the least flavorful and usually the least expensive. However, the low oil content gives chums a longer shelf life.

Prices for wild salmon will probably hit their low point of the year early this fall.

Given the low prices they paid fishermen this year, most processors can hold out to get a fair price for their fish. Since the worst of the glut of frozen farmed salmon is over, farmed prices should rise, which will work in favor of wild-salmon processors.

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