Media watch: Eye on Japan

From Alaska to British Columbia to Malta, mainstream media outlets have taken notice.

In Alaska, seafood companies that have dealt with Japan for decades are having trouble reaching their contacts in Japan, let alone exporting seafood products to the country.

“Japan has been a major investor in Alaska in our seafood industry, particularly in western Alaska,” Robin Richardson, membership manager for Alaska-based Global Food Collaborative told Anchorage’s KTUU-TV. “They still remain as really good investor partners with Alaska, so the economic impact is going to be the second thing we’re going to be concerned about.”

In the Pacific Northwest, another region with strong ties to Japan, seafood industry officials are searching for ways to assist the fishing ports wrecked by the tsunami. They’re also concerned about the backlog the disaster will create along the seafood supply chain.

“My opinion is that it’s bound to have an effect on the market because even cold storage and transportation systems have been damaged,” Terry Sheff, president of Seattle-based UniSea, told the Seattle Times. UniSea is owned by Nippon Suisan Kaisha Ltd. (Nissui), one of Japan’s, and the world’s, largest seafood companies.

In British Columbia, fishing companies are being contacted by Japanese seafood firms about replacing product that was lost in the earthquake and tsunami.

“There have been phone calls from Japanese [firms] who lost inventory in the disaster. They would have had it in cold storage,” B.C. Seafood Alliance Executive Director Christina Burridge told the Vancouver Sun.

“Japan is the No. 2 export market [for B.C. seafood products]. It takes roughly one-third of our exports of seafood products from B.C.,” said Burridge, adding that she expects there will be greater demand for everyday seafood products like salmon but not for specialties like herring roe or sea urchins.

The bluefin tuna trade came to a temporary halt in mid-March following the earthquake and tsunami. About 80 percent of the global bluefin tuna catch is consumed in Japan, where bluefin purchases are expected to subside until the country gets back on its feet.

Charles Azzopardi, managing director of Azzopardi Fisheries in Malta, a major bluefin-producing Mediterranean country, told the Times of Malta that he expects bluefin prices to “crash” this year, as demand out of Japan wanes. However, two other bluefin exporters told the daily newspaper that it’s still too early to assess the impact of Japan’s tragedy on the global bluefin market.

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