Higher Seafood Prices —
a Reality

What can seafood lovers do to soften the blow?

There’s been a lot of news lately about the rising cost of food. And if you’ve looked in the seafood case lately, no doubt you have noticed seafood is not immune to these price pressures. So why have seafood prices headed higher and when will they come down? And what can seafood lovers due to soften the blow?

First, it’s important to understand that seafood is a global commodity. While the U.S., especially Alaska, is a prodigious seafood producer, most of the seafood caught in our waters is exported.

Simply Seafood^® cod and sole, for example, are caught off Alaska,
frozen-at-sea and filleted, the bones are removed and cut into convenient
4-ounce portions.

In 2007, U.S. companies exported a record 3 billion pounds of seafood worth more than $4 billion dollars. On the flip side, we imported a record 5 billion pounds of seafood worth $13 billion.

Over the last 10 years, the slice of our seafood pie that is provided by imports has grown from about 60 percent to almost 90 percent. Some of that seafood we import is actually caught off our shores. Our Simply Seafood cod and sole, for example, are caught off Alaska, frozen-at-sea and sent to processing plants in China, where they are filleted, the bones are removed and they are cut into convenient 4-ounce portions – a process that cannot be done cost efficiently in Alaska.

The most obvious reason that seafood costs have gone up is because the cost of catching and raising fish is going up. On the fishing side, boats use a lot of fuel and diesel costs have more than doubled in just the past two years.

Meanwhile, down on the fish farm, the price of fish meal has gone up both because of higher fuel costs (again!) and rising demand from the growing global aquaculture industry, which now consumes about 90 percent of all the fish meal in the world. Another factor to consider is that the stocks used to produce fish meal are fully exploited at the same time demand for fish meal is growing. That means that fish meal prices will probably keep heading higher over the long term. Fish farmers who grow fish using grain-based diets are also feeling the pinch. Tilapia and catfish growers say their feed costs have gone up 30 percent in the last year alone.

Supermarket chains will feature Simply Seafood^® 4oz portions on 10 for $10 promotions.

The sinking dollar is yet another factor fueling higher seafood prices. As the dollar declines against most currencies around the world, it makes it easier for buyers in Europe and China to outbid U.S. buyers for fish.

It’s highly unlikely that seafood prices are going to come down anytime soon. As economic powerhouses like India and China, which are largely responsible for the rising fuel and grain costs, improve their standard of living, those country’s booming middle classes wants to eat more and more seafood.

So what’s a seafood lover to do? One thing you can do is consider serving smaller portions of fish. Our Simply Seafood portions are 4 ounces, which is plenty of protein for a typical adult. Many people still figure 6 to 8 ounces of fish per person, which is more than you really need.

You can also use seafood as an extender with popular dishes. Try seasoning and grilling a 4 ounce portion of our Simply Seafood keta, for example, crumble it and serve it on top of a couple of Caesar salads.

One more thing you can do is look for sales. A number of supermarket chains will feature Simply Seafood® 4-ounce portions on “10 for $10” promotions. That’s a great time to stock up and keep the costs of enjoying seafood down.

If you have any other ideas on how to stretch your seafood dollar that you would like to share, please feel free to e-mail me at peter@simplyseafood.com.

In the meantime, have a great spring.

All the Best,

Peter Redmayne
President
Simply Seafood®