By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Seafood processors and the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, banking on another year of increased sales in overseas markets, will be hawking their wares in 2006 at trade shows in Europe and Asia.

Their optimism comes on the heels of statistics showing their 2004 efforts sold Japanese buyers 308,825 metric tons of wild Alaska seafood valued at more than $854 million. European buyers participating in ASMI's program purchased 193,764 metric tons of seafood, valued at more than $455 million, said Maggie Beaton, a senior marketing specialist with ASMI. Figures for other Asia markets in 2004 were not immediately available.

Worldwide sales of all wild Alaska seafood for 2003, the latest year for which statistics are available, show purchase of 686,466 metric tons, valued at more than $1.8 billion, Beaton said.

The key to Alaska's success in growing overseas seafood markets will lie in finding purchasers "who buy our products for reasons other than price," said Chris McDowell, an economist with the McDowell Group in Juneau. "It is difficult for Alaska to compete on the basis of price."

McDowell said the advent of lower-priced farmed salmon has not been all bad, however.

"Still aquaculture in some sense has done us more favors than harm," in growing consumption of seafood, he said. "We can't grow at will like aquaculture can, so we have to increase unit value."

Beaton, who generally works with ASMI's European trade shows, said the state's key agency for promotion of wild Alaska seafood will participate in a number of trade shows in 2006, including the European Seafood Exposition in Brussels, Belgium, May 9-11, where ASMI has its own pavilion. ASMI will also participate in Japan's Super Showcase International Supermarket and Private Label Trade Show March 1-3, the China's Restaurant and Bar Trade Show May 9-11, and the Japan International Trade Show July 19-21, she said.

ASMI, however, will skip the Hofex show, which alternates between China and Singapore, because the state agency has no program in Singapore, she said.

Much of the funding for these pricey overseas trade shows comes from the federal Department of Agriculture's market access program. For the 2005-2006 fiscal year, ASMI will get $4.3 million. Funding is based on previous success of the program seeking funds and availability of matching funds. "The higher the match we have, the more money we qualify to get," she said. "We don't have a lot of match."

Some of the matching funds come through assessments of processors participating in ASMI. The agency also charges a fee for seafood processors and others wishing to participate in a trade show.

For this year's European Seafood Exposition, for example, ASMI expects 14 companies to pay $4,500 each for participation. The 13 firms signed up to date include Ocean Beauty Seafoods, Trident Seafoods, Seafood Producers Cooperative, Double E Foods, Northern Keta Caviar, Palomino Seafoods, North Pacific Seafoods, NorQuest Seafoods, Alaska General Seafoods, Intersea, Pacific Seafoods, Peter Pan Seafoods and Alaska Troll Seafood Producers.

ASMI also had 14 participating firms at last year's exposition, Beaton said.

"We publish a report after the show on projected sales for the 12 months following," she said. "We ask each one what they think they will make in sales over the next 12 months." Projections following the 2005 show were for $104 million in sales, up from the 2004 projection of $81 million, she said. ASMI does not track actual sales from the show for each firm.

Beaton said this year there seems to be more demand than supply available for keta, or chum, and pinks for fillets, and headed-and-gutted, or dressed, frozen salmon, primarily for retail markets in Western Europe.

Part of the problem was that much of the pink salmon harvest was still being canned.

"I would say there is increased awareness of the health attributes of salmon," she said. "There is also increased demand for wild natural salmon." Sustainability of the fisheries is also a concern among buyers, particularly in Germany, she said.

McDowell, who also tracks salmon markets for ASMI, said pink prices bottomed out in 2002, but has since bounced back nicely. He also said the form of the product is shifting away from cans toward a frozen product. "Through the 1990s, we canned 75 percent to 80 percent of pinks. Today the ratio is 60-40 and widening," he said.

This trend should reduce the chronic oversupply of canned salmon, and where there is more demand for frozen, "we are better able to match supply with demand," he said.

The trade shows have proved useful for big processing companies and smaller firms as well, Beaton said.

At the European Seafood Exposition, for example, ASMI has a business lounge in its pavilion that may be used by observers from smaller Alaska seafood firms who are walking through the show, eager to find new customers. "We encourage industry members to utilize the business lounge to meet with potential customers, but they should make appointments before they arrive," Beaton said. "We get 10 to 20 industry members (each time) who walk the show and utilize the lounge. We also have regular European customers who use the lounge, who talk to ASMI representatives about potential promotions we will have in the coming year. It facilitates a way of nurturing these ongoing relationships."

ASMI, for its part, provides information on projected harvest levels, promotions, and tells inquirers whether its budget will allow ASMI to do certain promotions abroad.

Visitors to the lounge are welcome to taste samples of Alaska seafood, from halibut, Pacific cod and salmon and black cod. The samples go beyond seafood, including coffees roasted in Ketchikan and beer brewed in Juneau. The Juneau-based Alaska Brewing Co. donates beer for the European exposition every year, and ASMI, in turn, puts up the brewery's posters and gives out information about the company. Also on display are cases of all kinds of Alaska seafood products, including pollock, king crab, snow crab, Dungeness crab and all five species of Alaska wild salmon.

ASMI representatives also provide a service for seafood traders who approach them looking to buy specific products. "We take their information and tell them all about the companies coming with us, and we refer them to the companies to talk prices, and say we will be happy to send out their request to the entire industry," she said.

With about 200 companies on ASMI's trade lead list, "everyone has an equal shot at trying to sell their product," she said.

The black cod sampling at the latest European exposition was a big hit, she said. "It is a very expensive product and the Japanese are our main customers, but now it looks like we may have some black cod going into all three (of ASMI's European programs)," she said.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.