Rising Surimi Prices a Bright Spot for Pollock Producers as A season Fillet Production Falls  Japan is proving to be the best market for pollock producers these days, and they are taking advantage of this by increasing surimi production and dropping block and fillet production writes John Sackton. Surimi production is up over 6 percent this year, while deepskin and PBO block Pollock production are both on the decline. It appears Japan’s surimi market was better prepared to adjust to the gradual weakening of the Japanese Yen versus the quick fall in value of the Euro and its impact on Pollock sales in that market. Meanwhile, surimi prices in Japan are up as is demand for Alaskan Pollock raw material with Pollock production from Asian sources down. The Chinese market for frozen whole cooked Canadian lobsters is growing, driven by huge transshipments of the product through Vietnam. Canada’s whole cooked lobster shipments were up 170 percent in 2014 when adding up the Vietnamese shipments. “This dynamic is going to help the Canadian lobster processing industry this year, because it will provide a substantial alternative market to Europe, which has traditionally bought popsicle lobster, but which cannot buy that much this season,” writes John Sackton. In other news Louisiana’s crawfish industry is entering its peak production period and processors say the lack of H-2B workers is threatening their ability to keep peeling operations going. The state’s agricultural officials are now working on a plan to speed up the Labor Department’s’ application process to get temporary workers in the plants as soon as possible. Finally, popular Russian ex-Governor Alexander Khoroshavin, who presided over the lucrative whitefish producing region Sakhalin Oblast, has been arrested and charged with bribery. It appears Khoroshavin’s arrest may have been orchestrated by the Russian fish mafia who were shut out of Sakhalin’s fish industry by Koroshavin through his fishery management plan that is credited with boosting production in the region.