US Retail Sockeye Fillet Prices Falling in Normal Pattern
Retail sockeye salmon prices are falling in a normal historical pattern compared to current wholesale market behavior dating back to 2014. According to Urner Barry, promotional retail salmon prices are down 28 percent between June 2014 and November 2015. Wholesale sockeye prices are down 46 percent in the same time. The more gradual decline in retail prices is consistent with historical behavior. It does not mean that stores have been ignoring this year’s large drop in wholesale prices of Alaskan sockeye, where a report confused the delayed correlation between retail and wholesale prices in the market.
The White House's National Ocean Council Committee (NOC) published a list of 16 seafood species that it considers to be "at-risk" of IUU Fishing and seafood fraud. According to the NOC's post, these species are deemed most in need of an action plan to eliminate IUU fishing and seafood fraud practices in their supply chains. NOAA will now develop a seafood traceability program for the identified species.
In other news Russian fleets will return to Northwest Atlantic waters in a few years to catch its NAFO quotas of cod, redfish and flounder. In 2015, NAFO awarded Russia quotas of 893 tons of cod, and 18,629 tons of redfish. They also have a TAC of 1473 tons of Greenland halibut (turbot). Russian officials said the move back into the Atlantic was so that it did not lose its historical rights to operate in the region.
Finally, Pacific Northwest Dungeness crab fishermen are worried about sales this holiday season, accusing the media of sensationalizing the threat of domoic acid from the California’s fishery. Fishermen say the widespread attention that California’s Dungeness crabs aren’t safe to eat will hurt Thanksgiving and Christmas sales for crabs landed in Oregon and Washington, where biotoxin levels are at safe levels. “They could have just closed (the fishery) in areas where the domoic acids levels were high enough. This is sensationalized in the wrong direction. ‘Don’t eat crab.’ is for headlines and is a horrible situation for the fleet overall. It could have been handled in a more market-friendly way,” said Dale Beasley, president of the Columbia River Crab Fisherman’s Association.
Have a great weekend.
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