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ComFish gets an earful on seafood market competition

April 19th 7:02 am | Margaret Bauman Print this article   Email this article   Create a Shortlink for this article

Seafood marketing specialist Quentin Fong has a message for those seeking profits in this competitive industry: do your market research to find out what people are buying, and focus on a plan to make seafood a year-round business.

The energetic seafood trade and marketing specialist, who also has a background in commercial fishing, told participants in Kodiak's annual ComFish forums this past week that they need to focus on salmon, but look at other things as well to make seafood more of a year-round business.

Fong, who is employed through the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program at the Fishery Industrial Technology Center in Kodiak, has brought this message, along with his market, business management and trade observations, to a number of communities involved in seafood marketing workshops.

Salmon, he noted is the economic engine of coastal Alaska communities.

Still, he said, Alaskans will always face competition from farmed fish, and aquaculture is here to stay. So while focusing on salmon, Alaskans need to look at other seafood products as well, he said.

In the Bristol Bay region, Copper River Seafoods is trying to expand the season beyond red salmon into pinks, which allows the company to use equipment it is invested in for a much longer period of time. Product forms also have diversified, with Alaska processors shipping pink salmon fillets to Hong Kong and Europe, and into value-added products.

While many people say we should be doing more value added in Alaska, it is up to the company, he said. A lot of smokers are very successful, but this again is a question of entrepreneurship.

The key, Fong said, is to do market research, find out what people are buying, make a business plan and determine whether you have the expertise in that marketplace. If you don't, he said, maybe you should consider some other employment.

Fong also spoke about market trends over the past five decades. Back in the 1950s, more than one fifth of salaries was spent on food, but by 2009, less than 10 percent proportionately was spent on food, he said. With net profits for grocers under 2 percent, to make more money you have to grow sideways or take other people's market share, he said.

Fong was joined in the panel discussion by John Sackton, editor of the widely read website www.seafood.com, who offered his own observations on market conditions.

"I'm a big fan of farmed fish," Sackton said. "I work in the farmed fish industry and I think it plays a big role, but I think you can have a situation where wild is priced higher than farmed fish.

Sackton said Alaskan fish harvesters will face more of a headwind in sales now that Chilean salmon are back on the market and Norwegian fish farmers have revved up production.. Expect also the entry of new buyers, especially China, having a major impact on some species of seafood, he said. Chinese demand is supporting high Dungeness prices, and Chinese demand has also pushed up shrimp prices, he said.

Japanese markets have been significant in past years in seafood purchases, but Japan now has entered a period of restraint and Sackton wasn't making any forecast on how long that will last.

"The Japanese market is being influenced by cautious seafood buyers, and a reduction in demand," he said, citing rolling blackouts and other challenges faced by Japanese consumers in the aftermath of the disastrous earthquake and tsunami.

The weakened yen also poses challenges, he said.

Peter Bechtel of the University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, also addressed ComFish participants, to discuss how wasted fish parts totally 1.5 million tons annually, can be turned into profits as new products, including gels, films, nutraceuticals and more.

Bechtel's current research projects include fish by-product utilization., from fish meal to gelatin made from fish skins. There are currently more than 100 fish meal plants in Alaska, he said.

 

Margaret Bauman can be reached at mbauman@alaskanewspapers.com, or by phone at 907-348-2438

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