OBI Seafoods will join Pacific Star and Rogue Wave Processing in servicing Alaska’s Cook Inlet with salmon-buying and -processing operations this season.
OBI Seafoods, which was created by the 2020 merger of the Alaska operations of Ocean Beauty Seafoods and Icicle Seafoods, said in a press release it is “all in” for the Cook Inlet’s 2022 salmon season.
“With other buyers pulling out of the region, we wanted to make it clear to fishermen and local communities that we will be there throughout the season to buy fish and support our fleet,” OBI Seafoods Executive Vice President of Alaska Operations John Woodruff said. “We are very interested in talking to any Upper Cook Inlet fishermen who may be looking for a new market.”
OBI Seafoods is one of the top producers of fresh, frozen, and canned Alaska seafood. It operates 10 processing plants and buying stations throughout the state, including from Homer to North Salamatof Beach in Cook Inlet. Woodruff said the company anticipates its buying stations will open well before the opening of the salmon season in the Upper Cook Inlet.
OBI will be "paying competitive prices in the region and offering fishermen support services as well,” he said.
Sharply contrasting salmon run predictions in Alaska have resulted in some major changes in the Alaska’s salmon-processing sector in advance of the 2022 season, including the departure of Copper River Seafoods from Cook Inlet and the entrance of newcomer Rogue Wave Processing, a subsidiary of Vancouver, Canada-based seafood distributor Calkins & Burke.
“With declining salmon harvests in Cook Inlet and the departure of some processors in the region, there is a lot of speculation about how this salmon season will shape up on the Kenai Peninsula,” OBI Seafoods Spokesperson Pat Shanahan said. “OBI Seafoods wants to let the fishermen and local communities know that they are planning full operations for the 2022 season.”
Photo courtesy of OBI Seafoods
