April 11, 2023 — NOAA Fisheries’ Southeast Fisheries Science Center has released preliminary shrimp landings data for December 2022 for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic.
Approximately 6.7 million pounds of shrimp were landed in the Gulf of Mexico and the South Atlantic in December 2022, according to NOAA. For the total year, 119.7 million pounds of warmwater shrimp were landed in the U.S., down from its updated figure of 128 million pounds in 2021, a decline of 6.5 percent.
April 11, 2023 — Inflation and higher interest rates are straining private-equity funds that used leveraged buyouts to buy into the food and beverage market in recent years.
Private-equity funds purchased 786 companies in the food and beverage space in 2021 for a combined USD 32 billion (EUR 29.5 billion). The total sunk to USD 9.7 billion (EUR 8.9 billion) through the first 11 months of 2022, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, in part due to rising inflation and interest rates and geopolitical instability.
April 10, 2023 — Despite inflation, raw material prices, logistics costs, and other inputs all increasing significantly in 2022, the aquaculture feed industry increased its production at between 2 and 3 percent in all key supply regions. This was also achieved despite a slight decrease in the year’s total animal feed supply at less than 1.27 billion metric tons (MT), according to Norwegian independent commodity broker Holtermann.
While these financial impacts have continued into 2023, there’s one challenge that stands to have a much greater impact than all the others: the production of EPA and DHA – or eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids, Holtermann CEO Christian Meinich said at the 2023 edition of the North Atlantic Seafood Forum (NASF).
April 8, 2023 — From the first time television chef Julia Child hoisted a whole, ugly monkfish in front of her audience, early successes in marketing “the poor man’s lobster” showed how creative culinary and marketing campaigns could boost underutilized U.S. fisheries.
Now, a newly formed collaborative program aims to again boost U.S. domestic demand for monkfish – a stock at high population levels, and accessible close to home for Atlantic fishermen. Extending from Maine to New Jersey, it’s a regional push to “expand the audience and the markets that monkfish can fill,” said Tara McClintock, a fisheries specialist with the Cornell Cooperative Marine Extension Service in New York.
April 6, 2023 — The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent challenges of keeping workers safe and on the job in seafood processing plants led to a push for further automation in processing.
Now, three years on from the pandemic, the challenges may have shifted a bit, but BAADER North America CEO Nils Rabe told SeafoodSource the processing sector’s labor issues haven’t gone away.
April 5, 2023 — Inflation is changing how Americans shop for seafood, executives with Category Partners said during a presentation at Seafood Expo North America, 12-14 March in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
According to the Idaho Falls, Idaho, U.S.A.-based strategic insights company, which focuses exclusively on the fresh industries in the retail grocery channel, average retail prices of frozen seafood jumped 6.6 percent for the 13 weeks ending 4 February, resulting in a 8.3 percent drop in sales by volume and a 2.2 percent decline in dollar sales. Conversely, fresh seafood inflation was 1.1 percent for the quarter, resulting in a 2.9 percent slide in sales by volume, though the category realized a 1.9 percent increase in dollar sales, according to the NielsenIQ scan, powered by Category Partners analysis.
April 2, 2023 — Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata testified last week before key lawmakers of the Appropriations Committee to emphasize American Samoa’s appropriations situation, while expressing concern about the new challenges faced as a fishing-based economy.
“Tuna is to American Samoa, what the potato is to Idaho and the lobster is to Maine – without them our economies and identities would be drastically reduced,” Amata said to Committee Members representing those states.
“Now what would happen if the President declared that potato growing be outlawed or that lobsters couldn’t be caught in an area ‘bigger than Alaska and Colorado combined?’ Because that’s what the President bragged about yesterday (last week), declaring that over 777,000 acres of tuna fishing grounds be off limits for the U.S. fishing industry and that is canned at the American Samoa cannery.”
April 2, 2o23 — Bensenville, Illinois, U.S.A.-based Fortune International has signed an agreement to acquire Boston Sword and Tuna.
The deal will increase Fortune’s stature as one of the largest seafood distributors in the United States. Fortune International President and CEO declined an interview request from SeafoodSource, deferring until the transaction closes, which is expected within 60 days. Terms of the deal were not released.
March 30, 2023 — Clackamas, Oregon, U.S.A.-based Pacific Seafood has stressed the bona fides of its domestic labor force in its latest social responsibility report.
Pacific’s sixth annual Corporate Social Responsibility Report, released 28 March, said the company increased its sustainability efforts, supported groundbreaking research, forged new partnerships, and added more team-member benefits in 2022.
March 29, 2o23 — Already facing numerous challenges, U.S. seafood sales are expected to be further dampened by a rollback of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
Emergency SNAP funding provided during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic ended in March in most U.S. states.. The expiration of emergency allotments is estimated to be a USD 40 billion (EUR 37 billion) headwind, equating to around a 20 percent decline per beneficiary, according to a new Numerator report, “Helping SNAP Consumers During Economic Headwinds.”