Teaneck, New Jersey, U.S.A.-based Eastern Fish Company has been forced to make adjustments following Marubeni’s sale of North Pacific Seafoods in 2021, according to Eric Bloom, the company’s president and COO.
Marubeni, a Tokyo, Japan-based conglomerate, which reported USD 68 billion (EUR 62.4 billion) in sales and USD 4 billion (EUR 3.7 billion) in profit in 2022, acquired Eastern Fish in 2014 with the goal of strengthening its U.S. sales and distribution channels. That included a tie-in to grow Eastern Fish’s value-added business with product supplied by North Pacific’s five processing plants in Alaska, Bloom told SeafoodSource in advance of the 2024 Global Seafood Market Conference, taking place 23 to 25 January in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A.
“Part of our strategy was to take that fish, do some value addition, and bring it to market, which we started to do very successfully,” Bloom said. “Just as we were really reaching that volume and that success, [Marubeni] sold [North Pacific], which was good for them and their goals but changed what we had to do.”
Marubeni has shifted to a preference for aquaculture and, in particular, land-based salmon projects, notably making investments in Proximar Seafood and Danish Salmon as a means to ensure stable supply, Bloom said.
However, between that pivot and the difficult situation faced by the global seafood industry in 2022, Eastern Fish has seen a decline in its sales by value and volume since its pre-pandemic level in 2019, when the company hauled in USD 440 million (then EUR 397 million) in sales. Bloom said that’s due to a purposeful reduction of some categories, which he declined to specify. In 2019, the company, which sells products under the SAIL, Just Fish, and Golden Harvest brands, traded in scallops, king and snow crab, lobster, squid, and finfish, in addition to shrimp – its leading seller.
“When we sold the Alaska plants, we had to rebrand and modify our long-term vision. It's more focused now,” Bloom said. “We always had targets to grow in certain spaces. Our breaded seafood category for foodservice has really been a strong focal point, and it's doing well. We're [also getting into] Asian appetizers, and our meal solutions category has been a nice add-on; both of those are part of our long-term strategy.”
Eastern Fish introduced its Golden Harvest dim sum line, which includes shrimp wonton, a shrimp dumpling trio, shrimp shumai, and shrimp spring roll offerings, in December 2023. The company also added an oven-ready line featuring Alaska salmon burgers, stuffed seafood fillets, and salmon pinwheels in 2022.
“We’re really focused on making restaurant-quality products, and we’re working with a smaller manufacturer here in the U.S. very closely on that,” Bloom said. “We've gotten in on meal solutions. We were maybe a little behind some of our competitors, but we've also done it in a manner where we've really focused on higher-quality goods at a value. The key is you still have to maintain the value you have. People have to be able to afford what you're putting out there.”
The appetizer line is part of a bigger dive Eastern Fish is making into Asian-style foods, according to Bloom.
“There's really only one major player in the segment, and we find it somewhat of a blue ocean, or open playing field, but again, we're doing it with quality,” he said. “We've been very careful about selecting what we're putting in the items; sustainability is still a huge key component, and we want to make sure we're leaving out controversial ingredients.”
Bloom said Eastern Fish is doing well “adapting to a new environment” caused by Marubeni’s strategy shift, an “overcorrection” in the U.S. seafood market, delicate consumer perceptions about the state of the economy, and higher interest rates.
“We've always had a [business] model that has allowed us to be profitable in almost every single year, save one or two. But, even the metrics on what we had done before have had to evolve and change due to inflation at levels we haven’t seen for an extended period of time. The lower cost of money forgave a lot of sins, but it’s not anymore. You can't live with the inefficiencies you could live with five, six, seven, eight years ago,” Bloom said. “It's all about adapting to the new environment and using your money in a smarter manner. We want to bring a good product at a fair price. Eastern’s focus hasn't changed: We have always been about providing value through the supply chain to both our customers and our suppliers.”
Photo by Cliff White/SeafoodSource
