Trident opens new joint venture in Japan to market high quality pollock roe 

News Summary: July 31, 2014 

Trident has made a big commitment to help the Onagawa area of Japan, which is a major pollock processing region hit hard by the 2011 tsunami and earthquake. This week Trident Japan announced a new joint venture with Takamasa Co., a long time customer for surimi and pollock roe. The joint venture will produce high quality gift packs from Trident’s catcher processors. Trident Japan will put in 2/3rds of the capital, and Takamasa 1/3. The project will revive sales of Takamasa’s brand of pollock roe, suspended after the Tsunami. 

Squid is not normally much in the news from Alaska, but this year, for the first time since 2006, high bycatch is forcing the pollock fleet to take remedial action. The fleet manages bycatch through an agreement to not fish in high-bycatch areas, and now that plan is being dusted off for squid. In the few weeks since the boats moved, squid bycatch has plummeted. 

Oyster shortages continue in the Gulf, with suppliers again calling the East Coast to keep oysters in stock. For the first time in the 43 years, Motivatit Seafoods, the leading oyster harvesting and production company in Houma, is bringing in some of its oysters from Chesapeake Bay, said Greg Voisin, Motivatit’s marketing and sales vice president. 

Southeast Alaska is seeing its best ever dungeness season, with a projected catch of 6.5 million lbs. With live demand from Asia not letting up, and low catches off Oregon this winter, prices are high - up 50 cents over last year. Also on crab, Norway’s king crab season opens this week. A higher minimum price was set, especially on larger size crab. 

We are beginning to get reports on the supply impact of the strong typhoon that hit Hainan and Guangdong ten days ago. Shrimp and tilapia production has been affected, say officials, and shrimp prices are beginning to rise. It is not clear yet how sustained this will be. 

Finally, a strong chinook run that turned out to be over forecast on the Yukon, combined with very conservative management has meant that the escapement goal for chinook into Canada, which is defined by treaty, has been met. This is only the second time in the past five years this has happened. Hopefully the sacrifices made by subsistence fishermen this year will pay off in more chinook salmon in the future.

John Sackton, Editor And Publisher , Lexington, Massachusetts 

Seafood.com News 1-781-861-1441 

Email comments to jsackton@seafood.com

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