By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Sharing $7.8 million, four major seafood processors, along with the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, Copper River Seafoods, Taco Loco Products and Arctic Paws are the top 2006 winners in 2006 grants from the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board.

Winners of the 76 grants, all of which must be partly matched by recipients, were advised in late October and November that they had won. A complete list of the grant winners is available at www.alaskafisheriesboard.org.

The money, secured for the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, come from the federal Saltonstall-Kennedy Fund, which is fueled by duties and tariffs levied against foreign seafood imports.

Among the processors, the top four included Ocean Beauty Seafoods, receiving $516,709; Peter Pan Seafoods, $444,852; Icicle Seafoods, $418,942; and Trident Seafoods, $369,706. Processors Bear and Wolf LLC got $338,945, and Norquest Seafoods, now owned by Trident, was awarded $187,432.

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute was awarded $1.5 million for a nationwide consumer marketing campaign for wild Alaska seafood, plus $750,000 to augment nationwide television advertising for Alaska seafood.

Copper River Seafoods, with offices in Anchorage and Cordova, was awarded $150,000 to market new value-added products from its famed first-run Copper River salmon. Taco Loco Products, also in Anchorage, got a $150,000 grant to promote its new Alaska salmon wrap. A third Anchorage-based firm, Arctic Paws LLC, won $142,000 to hire a firm to move its popular Yummy Chummy pet snacks, made from wild Alaska pink salmon, into more supermarkets and mass industries nationwide, and for sampling events at dog shows and pet stores.

The Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board, chaired by Duncan Fields, a commercial fisherman, consultant and attorney in Kodiak, was established under the Alaska Department of Commerce to award grants to market, develop and promote Alaska Seafood. The board also serves as a catalyst for improving related technology and transportation for seafood from Alaska.

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