When it comes to Alaska’s famed Copper River salmon season — the first 12-hour opener occurred on 17 May — some buyers have to have those first fish off the plane. Others don’t want to pay those first-fish-of-the-season prices, which can top USD 50 a pound for king fillets at some Pacific Northwest retailers.
“We’re always concerned about price,” said the seafood buyer for a company that owns national restaurant chains. “Our chefs like to jump on it, regardless of what the price is, because it’s such a premium product and it’s prized. They want us to jump on it and bring it in, but at the same time we’ve got to be sensitive to how much we’re charging.
“We’re not in a hurry to be the first ones to carry it in every market, it depends on availability and price,” he said. “In some of the bigger markets, if we have it by the first weekend, that would be ideal.”
As for prices, the buyer said he has a “line in the sand” he won’t cross.
“The line in the sand is not what we’re willing to pay; the line in the sand is what we’re willing to charge for it,” said the buyer. “We don’t want to charge over USD 36 or USD 39 for any piece of fish, no matter how prized it is, because for many consumers, the value just doesn’t translate. They go to Costco and see salmon in the case for USD 3.25 a pound. The people who know it and understand it, they don’t mind paying for it.”
Prices drop off from the crazy highs after about a week, and continue to fall as the season progresses and the cachet of the hyped fish diminishes. The latest forecast from the Alaska Department of Fish & Game from late April called for commercial harvests of 1.23 million Copper River sockeye and 20,000 kings.
While the actual prices for the opening-day catch are set in the days prior to the first fish being caught, one seller of Copper River salmon said the week before the opener they expected the opening catch to result in wholesale prices of USD 17.95 a pound for whole kings and USD 22.95 a pound for king fillets, with whole sockeyes at USD 11.75 and sockeye fillets at USD 17.95.
“We look at it over the last 10 years, we look at the forecast for fish, we look at the world market, we look at what we have sold to them historically and generally come up with where the pricing is going to be,” said the executive from the Alaska-based supplier.
Even though catch numbers won’t be known until they are set by ADF&G, the seller says the company takes orders as much as a year in advance, and has formulas to determine how to split up the allocation.
“If it falls short, and you are a pre-existing customer with us … we’re loyal to them and they’re loyal to us. If there is one fish, we can divide it up 100 ways if we have to,” said the executive. “Where it comes into play is, if you call us because you’re a fish restaurant and you are based in Georgia and you just read in the paper Copper River is opening, that’s where they can get shorted because they haven’t lined it all up.”
The chain restaurant buyer is hopeful Copper River kings will be plentiful this season, with enough available to last until the end of June or beginning of July. If not, it will make do with the sockeyes. “Typically, with Copper River kings and Copper River sockeye, we pretty much stay out of the way,” he said. “We broil it, pan-sear it, grill it and serve it with very little on it.”
