Monday, January 24, 2022

Alaska NOAA researcher: Goal is to offer seafood harvesters more resilience to climate change Cordova Times by Margaret Bauman - January 22, 2022 Social scientist Marysia Szymkowiak’s research focus with Gulf of Alaska seafood harvesters is a lot of talk: telephone interviews and virtual workshops to learn how they feel their coastal communities can best adapt to climate change. https://www.thecordovatimes.com/2022/01/22/noaa-researcher-goal-is-to-offer-seafood-harvesters-more-resilience-to-climate-change/ Secretary of Commerce issues multiple fishery disaster determinations for Alaska Determinations address economic impacts from 2018 to 2021 NOAA Fisheries - January 21, 2022 U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo announced today her determination, at the request of the Governor of Alaska, that multiple fishery disasters occurred from 2018 to 2021 across the state. https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/secretary-of-commerce-issues-multiple-fishery-disaster-determinations-for-alaska National USDA Year-End Solicitation Includes 24 Million Pounds of Alaska Seafood The latest purchase provides over 120 million servings to food insecure Americans. Alaska Seafood Marketing - January 20, 2022 ASMI is pleased to share some of the recent results of our work with USDA to supply nutritious food to the consumers of America’s food banks and nutrition safety net programs. https://www.alaskaseafood.org/news/usda-year-end-solicitation-includes-24-million-pounds-of-alaska-seafood/ International NFI Video on Current Supply Chain Challenges Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association - January 19, 2022 In a short video, the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) explains the supply chain challenges that face the seafood industry are multifaceted. Fixes to only one point in the supply chain can actually increase gridlock in other parts. The video presents the shocking figure that transporting fish costs 9 times what it used to just two years ago! https://www.bbrsda.com/updates/2022/1/19/nfi-video-on-current-supply-chain-challenges Russian Pollock Producers Post $400 Million in Losses Due to China Market Closure SeafoodNews.com by Eugene Gerden - January 21, 2022 The overall losses of Russian pollock producers due to the closure of Chinese ports and market for their supplies amounted to US$400 million. Although, the ban allowed producers to increase the production of more expensive products - fish fillets and minced meat by at least 1.5 times, according to recent estimates of the Russian Pollock Association. The restrictions on supplies have been in place for more than a year: in October 2020, China began to close its ports for Russian products after traces of COVID-19 were found on the packaging of fish coming from Russia. The last port of Dalian closed in December 2020. According to the Russian RBC business paper, at the end of 2020, the Chinese authorities were asked by the presidential envoy in the Far Eastern Federal District Yury Trutnev to lift restrictions on the supply of fish from Russia. Negotiations went on throughout 2021, but there was no final clarity on when Chinese ports could open: At the end of September, the head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries Ilya Shestakov, said that massive supplies of Russian fish to China "will not open either in the coming months or in the next year." Still, in early January 2022, China unexpectedly resumed receiving Russian fish in its ports of Dalian and Qingdao. The first Russian vessel with more than 7,000 tons of fish products, according to the Federal Agency for Fisheries, entered the port of Dalian on January 16. According to analysts, one of the reasons for such a decision is a shortage of fish at Chinese fish processing enterprises themselves, as most of the Russian pollock was traditionally imported to China for further processing and re-exports in the form of finished pollock fillets and other products to the countries of the EU and the US. A significant increase in the production of pollock products by Russia could be considered as another factor for the resuming of Russian supplies by the Chinese side. As Alexey Buglak, head of the Pollock Association told RBC by processing Russian raw materials into pollock fillets, China created at least $250 million of added value – which is a very serious income that China could lose, as Russia began to increase the production of competitive products by itself. According to him, the production of fillet, minced meat and surimi in Russia increased 1.5 times in 2021, to 150,000 tons. In the meantime, Herman Zverev, head of the All-Russian Association of Fish Producers (VARPE) believes although China has decided to open its ports, this does not mean that exports will resume in the previous format. According to him, last year China introduced new measures to control the quality of products supplied, including labeling requirements, " and these measures will significantly affect the intensity of supplies.” https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1217153/Russian-Pollock-Producers-Post-400-Million-in-Losses-Due-to-China-Market-Closure Labeling and Marketing 3MMI - 2022 Pacific Halibut Fishery Limit, 2021 Recap, 2022 Outlook TradexFoods - January 24, 2022 The 2022 TCEY value for Pacific Halibut will be decided on Friday, January 28th. Projections from the IPHC’s most recent stock assessment are more optimistic than those from the 2019 and 2020 assessments due to the increasing projected maturity of the 2012 year-class. The Pacific Halibut fishery typically runs from March to December and fresh Halibut is typically what hits the market first until around May when processors typically start freezing fish. Our recommendation this year is to make pre-commitments on your Pacific Halibut needs with your supplier as the demand for fresh and frozen seafood is forecasted to increase even further in 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ3aqeVZ-JQ Federal Register Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska; Central Gulf of Alaska Rockfish Program A Notice by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 01/24/2022 NMFS publishes the standard ex-vessel prices and fee percentage for cost recovery under the Central Gulf of Alaska (GOA) Rockfish Program (Rockfish Program). This action is intended to provide participants in a rockfish cooperative with the standard prices and fee percentage for the 2021 fishing year, which was authorized from April 1 through November 15. The fee percentage is 2.77 percent. The fee payments are due from each rockfish cooperative on or before February 15, 2022. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/01/24/2022-01198/fisheries-of-the-exclusive-economic-zone-off-alaska-groundfish-of-the-gulf-of-alaska-central-gulf-of Pacific Seafood Processors Association 1900 W Emerson Place Suite 205, Seattle, WA 98119 Phone: 206.281.1667 E-mail: admin@pspafish.net; Website: www.pspafish.net Our office days/hours are Monday-Friday 8:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. *Inclusion of a news article, report, or other document in this email does not imply PSPA support or endorsement of the information or opinion expressed in the document.