Tom Seaman, editorial director of Undercurrent News, brings you a roundup of the main stories from the previous week.
Although last week only included three working days, it was still packed with news.
The most-read story was a pickup from the San Mateo Daily Journal, a publication based in the US state of California, on a dispute in the Dungeness crab sector.
Crab harvesting in California's San Francisco Bay area has been delayed due to a price dispute between crabbers and major processor US Pacific Seafood Group, the publication reported.
Regulators allowed crabbing in the area to begin on Dec. 23 after delays over concerns about whale entanglement. But the newspaper reported the pricing dispute is causing additional delays. Bay area fishermen are asking for $3 per pound for crab while Pacific has offered $2.25/lb, which fishermen say is uneconomical for them to continue fishing.
Click here for the full story.
Brexit deal fallout
Stories on the Brexit fisheries deal also got a lot of interest. The deal negotiated by the UK government with the EU will actually mean a fall in the quantity of key fishing stocks landed by the Scottish fleet, according to a Scottish government analysis covered by Neil Ramsden.
Far from having substantially increased opportunities in the future, the Scottish industry will have access reduced to valuable staple fish stocks including cod, haddock, whiting and saithe, compared with existing common fisheries policy arrangements. This will be even at the end of a five-and-a-half-year phase-in period, according to the analysis.
It said this would have a potential knock-on effect for harbors, fish markets and processors, as fewer fish caught means fewer being landed and sold on for processing in facilities all around Scotland.
Click here for the full story.
EU sector blasts Brexit deal
The EU sector is also not happy with the Brexit deal. "At the European level, the result is a complete disaster," Javier Garat, the secretary-general of the Spanish Fisheries Confederation, Cepesca, and president of the European fishing association, Europeche, told Maria Feijoo.
"We have verified that the impact will be greater than we thought at first if we compare the current TACs [total allowable catches] for 2020 as they have been prolonged until March 31. If TACs and quotas are further reduced from then on, the situation worsens," he added. "It is shocking. For some species, we are going to lose up to 25% of our annual catches. The percentage may seem minimal in some cases, but the loss is considerable when measured in tons."
Click here for the full story.
Hofseth North America adds president
Jason Huffman got the scoop on a big hire at Hofseth North America (NA), the US arm of the Norway-based seafood supplier. Hofseth NA has hired a new president as part of its plan to significantly ramp up sales of frozen and re-freshed seafood in 2021.
Matt Mixter, CEO and president of the Chicago, Illinois-based division of Hofseth International, informed Jason will be giving the second of his two titles to Aron Levinson when he joins the company on Jan. 4. Levinson, who also will be known as the chief revenue officer, comes with about 20 years of professional business management and sales experience, nearly the last five of it at Southwind Foods, a seafood wholesaler, importer and processor based in Carson, California.
Click here for the full story.
Santa Monica takes 100% control of recently enlarged Ethos Seafood JV
Also in the US, California-headquartered processor and distributor Santa Monica Seafood has bought out its joint venture partner and taken 100% control in Ethos Seafood Group, it announced on Dec. 31.
Santa Monica said it had closed a purchase agreement for the equity interest in Ethos Seafood, which had been owned by the privately-owned investment and management company Blue Earth Group.
Ethos has just completed tenant improvements to double the size of its facility in Chicago to 47,000 square feet, including the addition of more packaging lines and freezer space. Further, its skin-pack operations located within Santa Monica's 120,000-square-foot production facility in Los Angeles will be taking on additional space in early 2021, including additional packaging lines, the firm said.
Click here for the full story.
US crab importer Blue Star to buy Canadian salmon RAS farmer
Another North American acquisition also got a lot of interest last week. On Dec. 28, US crab importer Blue Star Foods Corp. revealed a deal to move into the land-based salmon farming business.
Blue Star announced a plan to buy Nanaimo, British Columbia-based Taste of BC Aquafarms, a seven-year-old farmer. The companies said they have signed a term sheet "subject to certain closing conditions".
Taste of BC "has proven their technology in a model farm module designed to grow 100 metric tons of steelhead salmon per year", according to Little Cedar Falls, Taste of BC's brand.
Click here for the full story.
More challenges ahead for Ecuadorian shrimp suppliers
Ecuadorian farm-gate shrimp prices fell across almost all sizes in the final week of 2020 after a few weeks of increases, Maria Feijoo reported.
Depending on sizes, this means a decrease of between $0.10/kg and $0.15/kg compared to the levels seen a week before. Prices for large-sized shrimp remained stable week-on-week as prices for 100/120 counts also did.
The industry is bracing for another tough year after 2020 was severely impacted by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It has definitely not been a good year. We have seen many businesses go bankrupt, and we have suffered a lot every month with the uncertainty of not knowing what could happen to us the following day," a shrimp producer from Ecuador's Guayas province explained to Maria.
"It has been tough, but we are a strong sector, and we will continue to fight for it in 2021, even though there are many big challenges to face," he said. "We will need to learn how to overcome them all if we want to survive."
Click here for the full story.
Closure of Greenland deal gives Young’s parent $1.3bn seafood business
CapVest Partners' Eight Fifty Food Group, the owner of Young's Seafood, has closed its deal for AliSa International, which trades as Greenland Seafood, a spokesperson for the company said.
The deal, which takes Eight Fifty to over $1.3 billion in seafood sales, closed on Dec. 11, he said. CapVest adds Greenland to Young's, which has annual sales of around £600m ($811m), and Karro Food Group, a big pork supplier, under the Eight Fifty holding.
"The transaction is now complete. The acquisition is a major step for us into mainland Europe and we are delighted to have received approval from the German, French and Polish competition authorities."
Click here for the full story.
Indian vannamei shrimp prices in Andhra Pradesh dive further in week 53
The latest prices for head-on, shell-on farmgate vannamei shrimp from India followed different trends in week 53 depending on the area, according to data supplied by aquatech and farming services company Aquaconnect.
Prices show a continuous decrease in the main farming state of Andhra Pradesh, where farmgate prices for large, 30 and 40 pieces-per-kilogram vannamei shrimp dropped again by 4% and 7% to INR 460 ($6.27) per kilogram and INR 380/kg, respectively, week-on-week.
A similar drop was seen across almost all sizes in this area during week 53, data shows. Farmgate prices fell from INR 320/kg to INR 300/kg for 60-count shrimp; from INR 260/kg to INR 250/kg for 80-counts; and from INR 230/kg to INR 220/kg for 100-counts, according to the chart below, which is available in Undercurrent News' prices portal.
Click here for the full story.
Salmones Aysen ditches air-freight salmon as part of US frozen strategy
Salmones Aysen, a dedicated coho salmon farmer in Chile, decided to scrap the sale of air-freighted salmon to the US as part of a campaign to win over customers with frozen fish, Matt Craze reported.
The decision to end air-freighted sales is a way to wean US customers off fresh supplies as part of Salmones Aysen's campaign called "Leading the frozen revolution", and comes as new land-based farmers also promote a sustainability message.
Salmones Aysen, which sells more than 30,000t of a year of coho salmon from Chile mainly to Asia, is betting that US consumers will eventually turn to frozen salmon because of its lower environmental impact than air-freighted fish. The company also expects that Chile's coho salmon, which have mainly been marketed to Japan to date, could compete with wild-caught Alaskan salmon among consumers.
Click here for the full story.
January 04, 2021 at 04:41PM
https://ift.tt/391m2fb
Editor's recap: Dungeness crab dispute; Brexit deal fallout; Hofseth NA names new president - Undercurrent News
https://ift.tt/2MkGRbk
Crab
No comments:
Post a Comment