ANALYSIS: Cod Retail Data Suggests Peak Promotional Efforts from New Year to End of Lenten Season 

The groundfish market has been under upward pressure for several months due to a shortage in raw materials and escalating tariffs on imports from China. This analysis examines the promotional activity of cod at retail level over the past four years and highlights seasonal trends in promotional efforts...

Alaska’s Silver Bay Joins GSSI as Funding Partner

The Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI) recently announced that Alaska-based Silver Bay Seafoods joined GSSI as a Funding Partner. 

“Sustainable fishery management is critical to the success of our fishermen, and company, and the enduring strength of our partnerships with fishermen, communities, and industry across Alaska,” the company said in a statement yesterday. “Silver Bay Seafoods is enthusiastic about this new partnership with GSSI. The GSSI benchmark plays a critical role in seafood certification by extending formal recognition to robust, effective, and credible seafood certification programs...

Navigating the Trump Tariff Turbulence: A Comprehensive Timeline

US President Donald Trump and his administration have paused reciprocal tariffs on most countries.

“Based on the lack of respect that China has shown... I am hereby raising the [tariff] charged to China by the [USA] to 125%, effective immediately,” wrote Trump on Truth Social at 1:18 pm ET. 

It’s not clear if this 125% is in addition to the 20% imposed on Chinese imports to the US. In early March, Trump noted that he would add another 10% tariff on Chinese goods...

Senate Markup of FISH Act Addresses IUU Fishing Concerns, Reauthorizes Sea Grant Program

At a Senate markup meeting on April 30, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, delivered an opening statement in which she thanked fellow Senators Sullivan and Whitehouse for introducing the FISH Act of 2025.

She also thanked her colleagues for accepting her amendment to reauthorize the Sea Grant program, while also expressing her concerns about putting more requirements upon the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, or NOAA Fisheries), especially “at a time when the administration is proposing to..."

Russia to Accelerate Domestic Fisheries Research in 2025

This year, Russia plans to accelerate research activities for its domestic fisheries sector, with the aim of increasing catch efficiency and creating sector conditions for further growth.

According to recent statements from Ilya Shestakov, head of Rosrybolovstvo, one of the country’s foremost goals regarding fishery science is to provide more accurate forecasts to domestic fisherman. Improvements in this area will then provide Russian fishermen with an opportunity to increase catch in particular fishing areas and zones.

Russia expects to utilize the resource of the Russian State Research Center (VNIRO)...

Tariff Talks 2025: Expana's Weekly Rundown #6

Expana’s global team of specialist reporters has been tracking every twist and turn in the fluid tariff situation.

Click to read "Tariff Talks 2025: Expana's Weekly Rundown #6."

This report allows the Expana community to see where key commodity markets stand as of this past week... Click the above PDF report, or keep scrolling to read in plain text...

Fisheries Council of Canada Congratulates Newly Elected Prime Minister Mark Carney

The Fisheries Council of Canada (FCC) recently released a statement congratulating Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Liberal Party of Canada on their re-election.

The election, which took place on April 28, saw the Liberal Party’s Mark Carney—Trudeau’s successor and Canada's newly re-elected Prime Minister—going up against the Conservative Party’s Pierre Poilievre.

In the end, the Liberal Party won 168 of the 172 parliamentary seats required to hold the majority. Therefore, while Carney and the Liberals did not win the outright majority of seats, they...

Japan’s March Seafood Exports Surged 63% in Quantity and 48% in Value

According to trade statistics released by the Ministry of Finance, Japan’s marine product exports (including fishmeal and fish and shellfish products) for March increased 63% in quantity compared to the same month last year, amounting to 57,522 tons. Imports also increased 48% in value to 33,080 million yen ($231.68 million).

While the volume of frozen scallops (combined shucked and with shells) decreased, the value increased. Meanwhile, frozen yellowtail fillets increased in both quantity and value.

Minato Shimbun highlighted key marine products that are important for Japan’s exports...

World’s First Wind-Aquaculture Platform Passed Acceptance

The world’s first integrated floating platform for wind power and aquaculture, Guoneng Sharing, independently developed by China Longyuan Power Group Corporation Limited, has recently passed acceptance by a panel of authoritative experts in Beijing.

Located in the waters off Nanri Island, Putian, Fujian Province, the project marks a significant breakthrough in China’s three-dimensional development of marine resources.

The innovative Guoneng Sharing platform combines a 4-megawatt floating wind turbine with an intelligent deep-sea aquaculture cage system capable of rearing 50,000 deep-sea fish. The project overcame multiple technical challenges, including performance...

Sens. Booker and Sullivan Introduce Keep Finfish Free Act Banning Fish Farms in US EEZ

Yesterday, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK) introduced the Keep Finfish Free Act, bipartisan legislation that would prohibit federal agencies from issuing any permit or taking any other action to authorize or facilitate commercial finfish aquaculture operations in the U.S. EEZ, unless Congress passes future legislation explicitly authorizing such permits.

If the title sounds familiar, it’s because a near-identically titled House Resolution was introduced in early 2021 by Representative Don Young of Alaska, a Republican. It, too, was bipartisan...

FDA Finalizes “Healthy” Food Definition, Includes Nuts, Seeds, Eggs, Olive Oil, and Salmon Products

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently finalized its definition of ‘healthy’ for U.S. food products, thus allowing foods like nuts, seeds, higher-fat fish, and certain oils—which were previously not included in an earlier version of the rule—to bear the word “healthy” on their packaging and other food marketing materials.

As Expana reported in December 2024, varieties of these foods such as fresh, frozen, or canned options are also listed in the update, so long as they have no added ingredients...

Ocean Outcomes Announces $3M Push for Tuna Fleet Transparency in Northeast Asia

At this year’s Our Ocean Conference in Busan, South Korea, all eyes were on Northeast Asia’s distant water tuna fleets — the largest in the world, operating across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Yet despite their vast reach, these fleets remain among the least transparent, with average observer coverage hovering below 10%. For the remaining 90% of the thousands of vessels catching tuna on the high seas, little is known.

Ocean Outcomes (O2) and Global Fishing Watch (GFW) are leading the charge to modernize this high-risk...

GAPP Awarded Funds for Trade Missions, Research in Key Global Markets

USDA-FAS Awards Six Emerging Market Program Grants to Explore New Opportunities for Alaska Pollock Abroad

SEATTLE, Wash.— New research to understand market conditions, consumer perceptions and opportunities for Wild Alaska Pollock will be conducted this year thanks to a significant grant award, the Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP) announced today. Under the United States Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agriculture Service (USDA-FAS) Emerging Markets Program (EMP), GAPP was awarded funding to support six unique projects in three critical emerging markets: Brazil, Colombia and India...

Exclusive International Trade Centre Interview: Implications of Trump’s Tariff Regime

Julia Spies is the Chief of Trade and Market Intelligence for the International Trade Centre (ITC) in Switzerland. Spies and team analyze trade information and publish findings about market-specific trade intelligence on multiple online platforms, like Tradebriefs.intracen.org.

Recent shifts in the world of trade, including the latest round of United States tariffs and trade measures by other countries, has kept Spies and company busy, to say the least.

However, ITC members have watched trade measures, and in particular their impact on developing countries, long before these recent changes...

NMFS Issues Temporary Rule to Ensure Uninterrupted Northeast Groundfish Season; Fishery Opens May 1

On April 29, NOAA Fisheries (NMFS) signed a temporary rule to facilitate uninterrupted fishing for the Northeast Multispecies fishery, otherwise known as the Northeast groundfish fishery. The rule is effective May 1, the same day the fishery’s 2025 season opens up.

Per the emergency action, NMFS established interim specifications for Georges Bank haddock and two stocks of cod, as well as affirmed specifications for other Northeast Multispecies stocks previously set in Frameworks 65 and 66. As a result, the measure will allow the fishery to...

Russia Reduces Imports of Fish Products from “Unfriendly” States

Lately, Russia has been reducing its imports of fish products from so-called “unfriendly” states, according to recent statements from local fishermen and Russian media reports.

According to earlier data provided by the All-Russian Association of Fishery Enterprises, Entrepreneurs and Exporters (VARPE), which cites statistics from Trademap, Russia only imported 2.28%, or less than 6,500 tons, of frozen, smoked, and dried fish and seafood from “unfriendly” countries in 2024 was 2.28%.

Most of these imports were delivered from South Korea along with Taiwan and some other countries...

ANALYSIS: Unsettled Start for 2025 Snow Crab Market as Supply and Sectoral Pressures Mount

The U.S. snow crab market, particularly for product sourced from Newfoundland, has experienced a notably unsettled start to the 2025 season. While such early-season volatility is not unusual, this year’s market is exhibiting an especially wide range of offers and sales from seller to seller. As is typical, the market is expected to stabilize as more product flows into the U.S. and trading patterns normalize...