3:30 p.m. — Opportunities in Asia are basically limitless for seafood exporters. Due to the increasing middle class of nearly 400 billion people spending more of its disposable income on expensive seafood, the region cannot keep up with demand domestically and is turning more and more to imports to fill supply gaps. Fatima Ferdouse, head of the trade promotion division at Infofish, said at her conference, “Opportunities in Asia’s Fast Growing Consumer Markets,” that, along with fast urbanization and growing restaurant trade, the Asian markets absorbs more high-value seafood compared to anywhere else in the world.
Demand in Asia is rising for all types of seafood products, and strong demand in Asia is taking away products previously destined for Western markets. Moreover, the higher-income population is growing, resulting in a new range of consumers. For example, more Asian consumers are trading cod for salmon, at 10 times the cost.
“Asia Pacific and Central Asia regions will grow to take a 41 percent share of the global retail food market in 2020 compared with 33 percent in 2003,” said Ferdouse. “Per capita seafood consumption increased from 11.5 kilograms in 1990 to the current level of 25 kilograms, and it’s expected to reach 36 kilograms in 2020.”
3:15 p.m. — High Liner Foods Corporate Director of Sustainability Bill DiMento stopped by SeafoodSource booth 1301 to talk about the company nearly doubling its certified sustainable seafood purchases in 2011 compared to 2010.
DiMento attributed the increase to purchasing more sustainable seafood products including Marine Stewardship Council-certified Alaska salmon. When I asked him what impact Alaska processors’ decision not to renew the certification would have on High Liner’s sustainability goals he said the company will try to buy from MSC or other credible certifications. So High Liner expects to review other programs, and DiMento said other certification schemes may fit High Liner’s needs.
He also said the company does not have plans to drop companies who don’t have certified sustainable products but rather are working with all of its suppliers to achieve certification.
“I haven’t run into one [supplier] yet that is unwilling to improve their fishery and move in the right direction,” he said.
DiMento added that while the company is not sure what direction they are going to take with the assets acquired from Icelandic in terms of its sustainability goal, Icelandic did as much as it possibly could to make sure its purchasing was heavily aimed at being 100 percent sustainable.
In addition, High Liner has renewed its partnership with Sustainable Fisheries Partnership for another two years.
“We’re very much looking forward to that and driving more fisheries and aquaculture improvement projects,” said DiMento. “It’s a great relationship, they get to better understand the industry and we better understand the landscape of the NGO community.”
2 p.m. — Have you been to a Legal Sea Foods restaurant since arriving in Boston for the show? If so, you probably noticed cobia on the specials menu.
Neal Isaacson, CFO of Open Blue, which farms the cobia of the coast of Panama, said it added a harvest to fill the restaurant’s order for a soft roll out during the show. After the event, the new Legal Harborside location will continue to menu cobia, and the other Boston locations may keep it on the menu, as long as they can find a price point that fits their menus, said Isaacson.
Lucky for Legal, Open Blue recently launched its Direct Harvest program, which gets cobia to customers in less than a week after the order is placed. “We take orders on Friday, the harvest is on Sunday, by Tuesday the fish is in Miami. It’s trucked to the East Coast so it will arrive in the Boston area on Thursday and it’s flown to the West Coast so it’s there by Wednesday,” said Isaacson.
The program has been a huge success, with so many orders coming that in the company must add a second weekly harvest.
“It’s the best, freshest way to get fish to the market,” said Isaacson.
12:50 p.m. — The finalists for the 2012 Seafood Prix d’Elite new products competition have been announced! The winners will be revealed at the European Seafood Exposition in Brussels, Belgium, in late April.
12 p.m. — Scott McLane and Gerald Magid, president and VP of One Earth Organics in Eastham, Mass., just stopped by SeafoodSource booth 1301 and told me about how the company is helping the seafood industry turn waste into dollars. The company has been working with SeaWatch International, which hired it to tackle the 10,000 tons of waste its New Bedford, Mass., plant produces annually and has “been making good progress.”
One Earth started by getting SeaWatch to switch from disposing its waste in a landfill to a compost site for half the price. SeaWatch’s waste also now ends up as feed for the mink industry and industries. One Earth is also looking into a number of other options, including turning what was once thought of as waste into products for human consumption since it discovered it has high nutraceutical value.
McLane said the company is at the show today to not only try out the popular ping pong tables but to also find other seafood companies that produce a lot of waste that may be in need of One Earth’s services.
11:15 a.m. — Alaska Symphony of Seafood judges know what they’re doing. I stopped by the booth of the 2012 foodservice award winner, American Pride Seafoods, and tasted a sample of its Sweet Potato Crunch Alaska Pollock Sticks. I was wowed, and I’m not the only one.
“People are loving it, we can’t keep up,” said Ben Keylor, marketing assistant for American Pride, who said winning the award will increase sales of the product. Also, advertisements for the product now display the Alaska Symphony of Seafood logo.
11 a.m. — Ocean Beauty Seafoods of Seattle, known mostly for its products hailing from Alaska waters, is debuting its line of Chilean mussels.
The company’s St. Andrews brand of frozen blue mussels is available for both the retail and foodservice markets. Ron Christianson, VP of U.S. sales, told me that what’s going to differentiate its product line from others is its breadth and quality.
The product comes in 12 product forms, including breaded, whole shell, half shell, mussel meat and sauced. The sauce varieties include Mussels in White Wine Sauce, Mussels in Butter and Garlic and Mussels in Tomato Garlic Sauce. The one-pound boxes will retail for USD 4.99, but may be sold for as low as USD 3.99.
Christianson said Ocean Beauty has been involved in Chile for a number of years and felt that the area matched well with both its operations in Alaska and its products. Ocean Beauty will start shipping the line in mid-April.
9 a.m. — Follow SeafoodSource bloggers Chuck Anderson and Roy Palmer as they navigate the show floor and conference rooms and share their take on the atmosphere of the biggest International Boston Seafood Show ever.
