
By Margaret Bauman
2024 failed to be a recovery year for the total ex-vessel value of Alaska’s seafood harvest, but the potential of greater harvests of salmon and pollock in 2025 could bring a revenue boost, even with static prices, according to a consultant monitoring the state’s fisheries.
Potential larger volumes of salmon and pollock are positive price signals, said seafood economics consultant Sam Friedman of McKinley Research Group. Friedman presented the economic update on Dec. 3 during the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s annual “All Hands on Deck” gathering at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage.
Friedman estimated the impact on prices given two factors—the likelihood that the incoming Trump administration could impose heavy tariffs on imports from China, where a lot of Alaska seafood undergoes secondary processing, and the first Bering Sea snow crab harvest since 2021-22.
In 2023, Friedman noted, prices were down for almost all species of seafood, with the biggest drop for crab, salmon, halibut and sablefish.
The price decline was also significant, but not as large, for groundfish, he said.
Changes in the preliminary ex-vessel prices (the dollar amount paid to fishermen for commercial fish landings at the dock) for 2022-23 were positive only for sea cucumber, which rose 54%.
On the negative side were Tanner crab, -54%; keta salmon, -44%; sockeye salmon, -40%; pink salmon, -32%; sablefish, -28%; halibut, -25%; Alaska pollock, 17%; Pacific cod, -6%, and flatfish, -4%.
While there were some improvements to prices in 2024, they did not return to 2022 levels, Friedman said. The industry also was troubled by a historically small salmon harvest and an overall drop in value because of lower harvest volume.
Still, in 2024 the statewide average salmon ex-vessel prices rose 64%, from $0.64 to $1.05 a pound, and coho prices were up 9%. from $1.07 to $1.17 a pound, while keta prices dropped 20%, from $0.49 a pound to $0.39 a pound, and pink salmon dropped 4%, from $0.24 a pound to $0.23 a pound, according to data from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Food Aid Program
Among the other presentations at the All Hands on Deck gathering was an update on ASMI’s Global Food Aid Program, which has for the past 20 years supported marketing of Alaska’s seafood through participation in federal government food assistance programs.
Fifteen domestic and four international food and nutrition safety net program purchase Alaska wild pollock, salmon and Pacific rockfish. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the sole buyer for all domestic and international programs, including new initiatives with additional funding, said Bruce Schactler, director of ASMI’s Global Food Aid Program, who works with nutrition and food aid consultant Nina Schlossman on the project.
It’s a win-win situation, according to ASMI. The deal provides support when needed by the seafood industry, and for the USDA, the wild Alaska seafood provides nutritious and sustainable options for families dealing with food insecurity.
Schactler noted that one in every four Americans is served by USDA food nutrition programs, including over 30 million children eating school lunches, over 50 million people shopping at food banks and 6.6 million women and children who get WIC, the federal governments special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children.
Others served by the USDA programs include those benefitting from food distribution programs for the elderly and families living on tribal lands. Over the past 20 years, the ASMI program has helped provide nutritional seafood for people in 20 countries.
Schactler and Schlossman also have worked with international agencies and non-government organization partners to include canned salmon in their nutrition programs, well as pilot projects and field trials to test out new products like canned wild Alaska herring and seafood powder.
Over 20 years, sales have added up to over $1.07 billion, with expenses of under $6 million to the food aid program itself.
“Now that’s a pretty good return on the state’s investment,” Schactler said.
Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie@maritimepublishing.com