The U.S. Department of Agriculture is asking seafood suppliers to bid on 543,000 pounds of pollock and 154,000 pounds of domestic catfish.
The seafood will be used for the National School Lunch Program and other Federal Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs. The bids to supply catfish are due by 25 November, while the bids on pollock are due by 1 December.
The USDA plans to purchase 543,000 pounds of pollock, in the form of bulk cartons and frozen fish sticks. Suppliers who win the contracts will make deliveries to several U.S. cities between February and June 2023.
For catfish, winning bidders will make deliveries between January and June 2023. The USDA is asking for bids on supplying both unbreaded raw catfish strips and breaded raw catfish strips.
The USDA also recently purchased USD 5.7 million (EUR 5.5 million) worth of breaded, oven-ready catfish. The agency awarded the full contract to Isola, Mississippi, U.S.A.-based Consolidated Catfish Companies.
The USDA has been heavily supporting domestic seafood this year in order to support producers after the COVID-19 crisis wreaked havoc on fisheries.
In June, the agency said it would buy another significant amount of Alaska pollock – 7.6 million pounds – after already making several purchases earlier this year.
That contracet made 2022 the second-highest purchase year on record for both volume and value, Genuine Association of Alaska Pollock Producers CEO Craig Morris told SeafoodSource at the time.
The USDA also awarded more than USD 31 million (EUR 30 million) worth of contracts to Pacific Northwest seafood suppliers in early September.
Clackamas, Oregon, U.S.A.-based Dulcich Inc. won the majority of the new contracts, to supply USD 18.2 million (EUR 17.6 million), while Ocean Gold Seafoods, in Westport, Washington, was awarded a contract worth around USD 6.2 million (EUR 6 million).
Bellingham, Washington-based Bornstein Seafoods won a USDA supply contract worth USD 5.4 million (EUR 5.2 million), while Seattle, Washington-based OBI Seafoods will supply nearly USD 1.3 million (EUR 1.3 million) worth of fish to the USDA.
Photo courtesy of Heartland Catfish
