By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Strong prices and high quality are key to growing opportunities for air freighters to transport wild Alaska seafood, according to Ray Riutta, executive director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.

As the value and volume of frozen seafood increases, air cargo firms have become more important in the transport of high-value seafood, Riutta told the Alaska Air Cargo Association Feb. 27 in Anchorage.

Some 5 billion pounds of wild Alaska seafood are sold each year, he said. Although most seafood from Alaska is shipped by surface transportation, the opportunity for air carriers is growing, he said.

Halibut and the traditional high-value salmon species – sockeye, chinook and coho – made up 6 percent of Alaska’s 2006 harvest volume and 30 percent of the value. Pollock and cod accounted for 37 percent of the overall value of all Alaska seafood in 2006, compared to 22 percent for all salmon, 20 percent for halibut and sablefish, 11 percent for shellfish and 10 percent for other groundfish, according to ASMI’s calculations.

Riutta told the air cargo association that quality is absolutely essential at every step of the way to command high prices, and that ASMI is working with air cargo carriers and retailers to that end.

While processors send more wild Alaska seafood abroad, domestic markets are not far behind, he said. In 2005, the latest year for which statistics were available, the value of Alaska seafood in export markets was $1.73 billion, compared with $1.47 billion domestically, according to ASMI’s calculations.

“This is an incredibly complex market; it’s just amazing,” with wild Alaska seafood competing with farmed fish, pork, beef and chicken. Buying trends within various countries are also in flux, he said. In 2004, 74 percent of Alaska’s wild sockeye salmon exports went to Japan, and in 2005, Japan accounted for 80 percent of exports. In 2006, however, only 36 percent of exports went to Japan, freeing up more sockeye for U.S. and European markets, including the domestic fresh market.

Data collected by ASMI showed that in 2006, harvesters were paid $1.4 billion for their catch of all wild Alaska seafood.

“Ours is healthier, (but) we are all competing for the center of the plate,” Riutta said. Meanwhile, the harvest of wild Alaska seafood is constrained by biology with harvest limits for sustainability, and by seasonality when the various species are available for harvest.

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