The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s award of a large contract for Alaska pollock nuggets caps off a big year of U.S. government purchasing of the fish.
The agency awarded the contract for 798,000 pounds of frozen Alaska pollock nuggets, worth around USD 1.6 million (EUR 1.4 million).
Seattle, Washington-based Trident Seafoods was awarded USD 1.2 million (EUR 1 million) worth of the contract while Channel Fish Processing Co. in Braintree, Massachusetts was awarded nearly USD 387,000 (EUR 327,000) worth.
The suppliers will distribute the nuggets to facilities in several states from October through December of this year.
The suppliers will distribute the nuggets to facilities in California, Arizona, and New York from October through December of this year.
The U.S. government has made large purchases of pollock, salmon, and catfish this year, to help with national food nutrition programs – and partly to mitigate the financial impact of COVID-19 on the seafood industry.
Before the nugget purchase, the USDA contracted around 10.7 million pounds of wild Alaska pollock worth USD 22.65 million (EUR 19 million), according to Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP).
In fact, the agency made its third highest purchases of Alaska Pollock in 2020 – behind 2019 and 2017 – GAPP CEO Craig Morris told SeafoodSource.
"It is wonderful to see USDA continuing to purchase at these volumes such a sustainable and healthy protein, wild Alaska pollock, caught in U.S. waters by U.S. fishermen, for some of our great nation's most vulnerable populations – including our children served by the National School Lunch Program and those in need depending on food banks to help them feed their families during this unprecedented time,” Morris said.
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