Features
Healthy Living Fuels
Seafood Surge
Volumes are up, but demand for fresh seafood working against carriers
By Tony Seideman
Strong consumer interest in healthy food products is helping to fuel growth in seafood shipments, carriers say. But that very focus may work against maritime carriers, because demand is overwhelmingly concentrated on fresh products.
Fresh over frozen
“Wild Alaska seafood consumption in the U.S. is increasing because of the health benefits over farmed seafood,” says Alex McKallor, president of Seattle, Wash.–based Lynden Transport Inc. Consumers, however, tend to prefer product that has never been frozen, he says. This means that relatively little of the business that is generated goes to ocean carriers.
“Most of this new demand is for fresh seafood, which tends to move by air and highway, depending on the time requirements,” McKallor says.
Volumes up, production limited
The Alaska seafood business is up in terms of both value and volume, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute says. Between 2002 and 2006, volume increased by 11 percent, while value was up by 34 percent. Significant challenges are evident in those numbers, however, the institute says.
Price resistance is rising in a number of markets, the institute says. In addition, the fact that so much of the state’s seafood comes from the wild means that production is limited compared to the large volumes that are being produced by subsidized foreign aquaculture operations.
International currency fluctuations, low-priced protein alternatives and reductions in the total federal funds available for supporting infrastructure and marketing will further challenge the industry’s ability to boost the value of its harvests, the institute says.
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