November 22, 2024 โ Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based Trident Seafoods won the majority of new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) contracts to supply Alaska wild pollock.
Trident will supply USD 1.6 million (EUR 1.5 million) worth of pollock out of a total USD 2.05 million (EUR 2 million) worth of contracts, while Channel Fish Processing in Braintree, Massachusetts, U.S.A., will supply around USD 448,000 (EUR 423,000) in pollock.
June 13, 2024 โ US-based company Silver Bay Seafoods has bought an Alaskan processing facility from local peer Trident Seafoods.
The plant, located in False Pass, is dedicated to processing salmon. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The facility is located close to Silver Bay Seafoodsโ own processing plant in False Pass, which opened in 2019.
Silver Bay Seafoods, which is owned by 600 fishermen, is a processor of frozen salmon, herring, whitefish and squid products for the US and for export markets.
April 30, 2024 โ The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced new child nutrition standards for school meals that will likely benefit domestic seafood producers.
Under a new final rule published 25 April 2024, the USDA will allow schools to have greater flexibility with menu planning, an enhanced ability to purchase local seafood, and other standards that include reduced sugar and sodium. The standards will be gradually rolled out between the 2025 and 2027 school years.
April 28, 2024 โ Trident Seafoodโs Ketchikan processing plant has officially changed hands. It was announced last month that Sitka-based Silver Bay Seafoods would be acquiring the plant the seafood processing giant, Trident, put up for sale late last year.
The two companies announced the finalized acquisition in a joint statement on April 24th. Trident spokeswoman Alexis Telfer said the move promises โexciting opportunities and growth for the Ketchikan community.โ
March 18, 2024 โ A second buyer of one of Trident Seafoodsโ four plants for sale has been named. The seafood giant announced Friday that it has reached an agreement to sell its processing plant, bunkhouse, galley and two housing units in Petersburg, Alaska, to E.C. Phillips & Son Inc.
E.C. Phillips & Son currently operates year-round out of Ketchikan and Craig, Alaska. Tridentโs sale of their Petersburg facilities to E.C. Phillips & Son is expected to close in April.
March 14, 2024 โ Trident Seafoods is selling its processing facility in Ketchikan, Alaska, U.S.A. to Silver Bay Seafoods.
Trident and Silver Bay are two of Alaskaโs largest seafood processors. Trident announced in December 2023 it was aiming to sell its Ketchikan plant, along with its facilities in Kodiak, Petersburg, False Pass, as well as its support facilities in Chignik. In a 8 March update, Trident said it was close to finalizing sales of its Ketchikan, False Pass, and Petersburg plants.
March 11, 2024 โ Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based Trident Seafoods is โentering the final stagesโ on sales of three of its seafood-processing facilities in Alaska.
In December 2023, Trident announced it was divesting from its plants in Kodiak, Ketchikan, Petersburg, and False Pass, as well as the South Naknek Diamond NN cannery facility and its support facilities in Chignik, as part of a comprehensive, strategic restructuring initiative.
January 21, 2024 โ Trident Seafoods has terminated its membership in the National Fisheries Institute โ the largest seafood industry trade group in the U.S. โ and ended its participation in NFIโs Executive Committee.
In a Jan. 17 statement, Trident said the decision was in response to a disagreement with NFI on the latter organizationโs desire for the U.S. to import Russia-sourced seafood.
โTrident has been a proud member of NFI since 1978, and the decision to change our membership status is not one we take lightly. Unfortunately, Trident has hit a crossroads with NFI as it relates to two important areas,โ Trident said. โNFI did not stay neutral on a significant public policy disagreement within its membership and made no effort to address opposing views clearly and transparently, contrary to well-established rules of the road for trade associations.โ
The U.S. seafood industry has been split in its reaction to U.S. President Joe Bidenโs effort to ban Russian seafood through two executive orders โ the second of which, issued Dec. 22, includes imports of Russia-originated seafood processed in third countries, including China.
January 4, 2024 โ Alaskaโs seafood industry is reeling after Trident Seafoods announced its plan to sell off several processing plants.
The Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based vertically integrated seafood harvesting and processing company, which has a huge footprint across Alaskaโs seafood sector, announced on 12 December that it plans to divest itself of its Alaskan assets in Kodiak, Ketchikan, Petersburg, and False Pass, as well as the South Naknek Diamond NN cannery facility and its support facilities in Chignik.
December 24, 2023 โ Gerry Cobban Knagin is a commercial fisherman. She and her family have fished around Kodiak and sold their harvest to Trident Seafoods, one of the largest seafood processors in the country, on and off for decades.
But on Dec. 12, the company announced itโs selling off about a third of its Alaska processing plants, including their year-round facility in Kodiak. She said the announcement was a huge shock for almost everyone on the island.
โSpeaking with [Trident] management, there wasnโt any heads up for anyone,โ Knagin said. โAnd they decided, according to management, that they wanted full transparency so that the fleet would know.โ
Trident Seafoods has a huge footprint in Kodiak โ the processing plant is one of the biggest buildings in the cityโs downtown and can process more than a million pounds of pollock a day.
The company has been a part of the community for half a century and employs between 100 and 300 people, depending on what fishery theyโre processing. That doesnโt even include all of the fishermen who run independent businesses that sell fish to them, like Knagin.
But now, all of those people are left questioning their job security.
The archipelagoโs Tanner crab season starts next month but Knagin said sheโs dismayed that there seems to be little commitment from the company for upcoming fishing seasons.
โThey [Trident] will be buying Tanners, and they will be buying for the A season of Pollock โ they cannot expand on anything else past that,โ she said. โSo, we are salmon fishermen, and they cannot guarantee that they will be available for us to buy our salmon.โ
Alexis Telfer, with Tridentโs corporate communications, declined to verify if they will be buying Tanner crabs or salmon next summer, and refused to comment further. She said theyโre focused on supporting their employees, fishermen, and partners at this time.
Notifications