An analysis by the Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP) indicates that U.S. consumers are increasingly looking to buy pollock caught in Alaska.
A record-high 61 percent of the fish purchased domestically in 2020 was caught in Alaska and labeled as “wild Alaska pollock,” according to data analysis carried out by GAPP. The number is a slight uptick from last year’s record figure of 59 percent.
“Despite last year’s challenges related to an unpredictable global pandemic, the bright spot was that wild Alaska pollock was perfectly positioned where consumers were and that wild Alaska pollock was the brand that most consumers looked for in their pollock purchases. We’re continuing to see consumer awareness about wild Alaska pollock’s attributes increase and consumers are clearly voting with their wallets,” GAPP CEO Craig Morris said in a press release.
According to GAPP, last year another 10 million U.S. consumers became aware of wild Alaska pollock and its attributes, which GAPP calls “an unmatched sustainability story, checks all the nutrition boxes, leans in with a mild taste, and every fish is wild caught in Alaska.”
GAPP also found that last year domestic consumers ate more surimi and that Alaska pollock accounted for the one percent increase in surimi consumption. However, the pandemic combined with a rough 2020 fishing season to drive down per capita consumption of domestic pollock. Overall domestic consumption of pollock dropped 11 percent in 2020, but the 0.873 pounds per person last year was still higher than the 0.717 pounds per person in 2018.
“The decline in the amount of wild Alaska pollock consumed by Americans in 2020 from 2019 is, in part, a reflection of our fishery being a sustainably managed wild-caught fishery that only harvest what the fishery can sustain,” Morris said. “Despite this slight decline in 2020, the jump in the percentage of domestically-caught fish makes it clear that U.S. consumers are trying, loving and gravitating towards our wild Alaska pollock like never before.”
The pollock A season in the Bering Sea, the nation’s largest fishery by volume, is currently underway. Managers dropped this year’s quota by 50,000 metric tons (MT) to 1,375 million MT, and the beginning of the season has been hampered by COVID-19 outbreaks in processing facilities and on vessels.
GAPP is a nonprofit with a mission of marketing once-frozen pollock products from fish caught and processed in Alaska.
Photo courtesy of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers
