Salmon season is approaching quickly. With the recent infestation of the Chilean farmed fish market, wild salmon has surged in the marketplace. This season in Bristol Bay is going to be a big one and luckily fishermen are finally getting the price they deserve.
By Andrew Jensen
Alaska Journal of Commerce
The scuttlebutt around the Boston Seafood Show last month was that the sockeye market is “white hot” and that’s good news with another strong forecast for the Bristol Bay season.
A variety of factors including improved quality, increased marketing for wild, sustainable seafood, extreme disruptions in the Chilean farmed salmon industry and strengthening Japanese buying power of the yen should all contribute to the upward trend in ex-vessel value from Bristol.
The 2009 sockeye harvest from Bristol Bay was 30.9 million sockeye with an ex-vessel value of $127.6 million. The 2009 sockeye harvest was up just 1.5 million, 5.1 percent, from 29.4 million in 2007, while the ex-vessel price per pound increased by nearly 13 percent from 62 cents to 70 cents per pound.
The 2009 price was up 27.2 percent from 55 cents per pound in 2006.
via The Alaska Journal of Commerce – Sockeye salmon market heats up in advance of season 04/09/10.