Catch the Current hosts Amanda Buckle and Lorin Castiglione phone a Canadian friend this week -- Undercurrent's very own Barb Dean-Simmons -- to get the scoop on the latest science assessment out of Newfoundland and Labrador and what it might mean for the quota this year.
But before Barb's snow crab update, Amanda and Lorin are recapping some of the big company news to break this week, from the closure of Harvest Sherwood Food Distributors to Alaskan Leader Seafoods' expansion into UK Costco stores.
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Don't have time to listen? Find a transcript of season 1, episode 6 of Catch the Current below:
Amanda Buckle (AB): You’re listening to Catch the Current, the latest podcast from Undercurrent News, your trusted source for seafood news, data and prices. I’m Amanda Buckle.
Lorin Castiglione (LC): And I’m Lorin Castiglione. Some doors are opening, while others are closing in this week’s company news.
AB: We’ll begin with the grim.
Harvest Sherwood Food Distributors, a massive food distributor that bought from many of the major seafood suppliers in the US, is closing and laying off all its employees. The Detroit, Michigan-based company, which offered an expansive selection of seafood products to its more than 6,000 retail, wholesale and foodservice accounts, confirmed it will be ceasing operations on April 21, resulting in the layoffs of the company’s approximately 1,500 employees. A Harvest Sherwood spokesperson said that the reasons for the closure include rising costs and a diminished market for its products.
LC: According to the company website, its Harvest Food Distributors division, which serves perishable food producers and independent retail and foodservice customers, deals in products from Pacific Seafoods, Trident Seafoods, CenSea, AquaStar, Atlantic Capes, Harbor Seafood, Chicken of the Sea and Meridian Seafoods. Full story from Undercurrent’s Cliff White can be found in the story notes.
Unfortunately, those aren't the only layoffs Undercurrent News reported on this week.
US restaurant holding company Bloomin' Brands, the owner of casual dining chains Bonefish Grill, Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba's Italian Grill and Fleming's, announced in a regulatory filing that it would be laying off about 17% of its staff at the headquarters in Tampa, Florida.
Alyeska Seafoods' Dutch Harbor plant. Credit: Maruha Nichiro Corp.
AB: Meanwhile, Japan's Maruha Nichiro, the world's largest seafood company, has consolidated two of its Dutch Harbor, Alaska-based subsidiaries that are engaged in pollock procurement and processing.
The merger actually took effect in October 2024 and saw Maruha Nichiro’s North American holding firm, Maruha Capital Investment, absorb Westward Seafoods and Alyeska Seafoods. Westward Seafoods remains the surviving entity, while Alyeska Seafoods is set to be dissolved.
The Tokyo-based giant said in a statement that the decision to merge was "aimed at improving operational efficiency, increasing productivity, and streamlining management tasks to enhance profitability, as both companies had overlapping business operations.”
LC: Important to note here is that the consolidation follows a turbulent period for the pollock industry, marked by last year's slump in surimi prices and escalating labor and operational costs.
Hey, Amanda. Did you know that Maruha Nichiro is on UCN’s Seafood Titans 150 Report?
AB: No, Lorin. I did not. What number are they ranked?
LC: You’re going to have to download the report to find out!
This in-depth ranking covers the 150 largest seafood companies worldwide, offering insights into their revenue, key trends, and the forces shaping the industry. From the biggest aquaculture giants to leading wild-catch players, this report is the ultimate resource for anyone looking to understand the seafood sector’s heavyweights. Check it out now on Undercurrentnews.com and stay ahead of the game!
AB: Thanks Lorin. That link and the link to the full story from Undercurrent’s Masahiko Takeuchi can be found in our show transcript.
Onto another Top 150 company -- Canada’s High Liner Foods -- made headlines on Wednesday when it announced it was investing further in Norwegian cod farming and a land-based salmon project in the Nordic country.
AB: The company plans to participate in additional financing rounds for the two aquaculture companies of which it is a shareholder, Norcod and Andfjord Salmon Group. High Liner plans to invest approximately $6.75 million in Norcod and $10m in Andfjord in the coming weeks. The company said that the investments will support continued growth, innovation and expansion, as well as preserve High Liner’s strategic ownership stake.
And that was just one of High Liner’s headlines this week. Links to those stories, including the company’s latest financial results for Q4 of 2024, can be found in the show notes.
Photo Credit: Alaskan Leader
LC: In other exciting news, Alaskan Leader Seafoods’ Miso-Marinated Black Cod product is headed to the UK after finding domestic success in the US. Keith Singleton, president of the value-added division at Alaskan Leader Seafood, confirmed to Undercurrent News the product debuted in all 29 Costco locations in the UK last Friday, Feb. 21.
AB: UK listeners, if you have a Costco nearby then drop whatever you’re doing and go buy this.
LC: We will wait. Got it? It is SO good. True story: It cured my laryngitis last year in Boston. I had no voice.
AB: I forgot about that.
LC: I ate the black cod and it came back.
AB: It was like, it was like that buttery ... buttery smooth going down. I forgot about that. It was life-changing for you.
LC: It really was.
The product had such a great reception since it debuted in the US two years ago that the company is now taking it to the UK, where it will be supporting the launch in Costco through advertising, including hiring social media influencers. From there, Singleton said the company is looking to forge further relationships with traditional UK grocers, including Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer.
AB: The full launch in all of Costco's UK locations has been slightly different from the product's introduction in the chain's US stores.
Keith previously told Undercurrent the product was first introduced in US West Coast outlets and then swept east as other Costco stores made shelf space.
Costco has over 600 warehouses in the US, with the product appearing in approximately 300 of those locations as of June 2024, and most of the remaining locations by September 2024.
Also, this is relatively new from Alaskan Leader in US Costco stores -- they came out with a miso black cod deli kit! So, you know by the rotisserie chickens, they have the take-and-bake goods like the mac and cheese and taco kits? Do you know where those are?
Alaskan Leader's Wild Alaska Miso Black Cod Deli Kit at Costco. Photo Credit: Alaskan Leader
LC: Yeah, and those are some of my favorite things to grab when I'm at Costco.
AB: Yes! And now they have a Miso Black Cod Deli Kit. It’s the usual Costco take-and-bake tray filled with four pieces of the miso-marinated black cod, with jasmine ginger rice and fresh bok choy. It looks slammin'. Right now, it's only in Calfornia and Hawaii so we're going to have to do something to change that. But it looks so good.
LC: I love that. Come on, California, Hawaii -- the next one you think of is Jersey Shore. So let's get it here.
AB: You know, Pat Shanahan told us last week that all you have to do to get food into your stores is complain -- not complain, talk -- to your grocer.
LC: Alright, let's do it.
AB: So let's meet after work. Let's go hit up our Costco together. And let's talk to a couple of people until we can get that in our stores because that sounds awesome.
LC: I'm on it. In other news, I’m excited about Wild Alaskan Company’s expansion from direct-to-consumer to retail and foodservice!
AB: Ah yes, another favorite of mine. So CEO and founder Arron Kallenberg dropped this little nugget on his LinkedIn page in a job posting for a director of sales. The job description says that the company, which launched in 2017, is "seeking a scrappy, innovative B2B sales leader with a deep-seated desire to roll up their sleeves and singlehandedly introduce an exciting new line of wild seafood to retailers across the country."
LC: Per the job listing, Wild Alaskan Company is looking to drive "B2B revenue growth across retail, foodservice and wholesale accounts." The company's new director of sales will be responsible for identifying and pursuing "new B2B opportunities across retail, wholesale, and food service sectors, negotiating and closing deals to meet or exceed sales targets."
The membership-based service currently offers flash-frozen sockeye salmon, coho salmon, cod, halibut, rockfish, pollock quick cuts and sockeye salmon burgers. It also offers exclusive rotating specials for its members, including snow crab, snap-and-eat Dungeness crab, spot prawns, and weathervane scallops, amongst other items.
AB: Well, that was a lot of company news. But this week the Undercurrent team was also on snow crab watch as the latest science assessment data out of Canada was released.
Snow crab from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Photo from FFAW Facebook page
We’re phoning a Canadian friend because if we’re talking about snow crab, there is only one person we want our podcast and that's Undercurrent’s very own Barb Dean-Simmons.
Barb, this week you covered the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ presentation on the health of the world’s largest snow crab fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador. What did the latest science assessment show?
Barb Dean-Simmons (BDS): It's showing that in one of the larger fishing areas in Newfoundland -- which is 3LNO, if you know the alphabet soup of the fishing zones -- the stock is pretty good in that area, a mixed bag in some other areas as you go further north. But overall, the stock seems to be holding steady, probably pretty similar to where it was with last year's assessment.
AB: So, this isn't a quota, but what does it mean for Newfoundland and Labrador's quota this year?
BDS: Yeah. So the assessment is the first step, of course, and everybody sort of waits for that to see if the stock is maintaining some health or if it's dipped. And people generally make some predictions around that with 3LNO. I think most people are expecting that there would be status quo for the quota in that area. And I think last year that put it about 36,000 metric tons from from that fishing area.
AB: Okay. So everyone would be pretty happy if that if that stays on par with that?
BDS: Yeah. And of course, the overall stock last year was around about 57,000 metric tons, give or take. I think there's some expectation that there might be some cuts in some of in a couple of other fishing zones in 3PS in particular, and certainly further north on the Newfoundland coast in an area called 3K, which is White Bay, Notre Dame Bay.
AB: Now, I mean, it's already the end of February. We're coming up really quick on March. When is the fishery set to start?
BDS: Well, that's the million-dollar question these days. The industry, the fish food and allied workers, and the Association of Seafood Producers both asked DFO to think about an earlier start.
They were saying let's let this go for March 15. Normally the season doesn't start until the first week of April, or around about April 6. And of course, you know, we've had some delays in the last two seasons because of disputes over prices.
The last time I talked to DFO, which was for the stories I did last week, they said it's probably not possible to start on the 15th. They are contemplating a season start before the end of March, but they didn't give a specific date. And the other million-dollar question in all of this is before anybody fishes anything, they have to agree on prices.
And that's been the thing that's held up this fishery every year for the past three or four years. Now it's interesting this year, because FFAW has a new president, Dwan Street. I know that Dwan. The FFAW and the ASP have been holding some meetings through January to address the other complication leading into this season, which is the fact that the provincial government of Newfoundland and Labrador and the new fisheries minister, Jerry Byrne, had hoped that the negotiations could be a little bit different this year.
Basically, under the current Fisheries Act, the harvesters are not permitted to strike and the processors cannot lock out harvesters. They determine prices based on what they call a final offer selection made by a third-party price-setting board. The FFAW says, "We think the dock price should be this much." And the ASP says, "We think it could be this much." They each present their analysis of the market. And then the price-setting board chooses one price or the other. And in the last two seasons, of course, those offers have been very far apart. And that's led to a lot of confrontation, the halt to the fishery and some protesting until we got to the actual start date.
AB: Thanks, Barb. We were just joking about, you know, with all the drama surrounding the snow crab industry, I think it's time to start a new series on this podcast called The Crabby and the Canadian. Our own spin on The Young and the Restless, because there's so much drama, it's like a soap opera.
BDS: Sounds good. I wouldn't disagree with that.
LC: Barb is going to be joining us on the podcast quite a bit as the Canadian snow crab kicks off. So look forward to that in the coming weeks.
Know what else you can look forward to? Live coverage from the Boston Seafood Show! Undercurrent’s team of reporters will be in Boston for Seafood Expo North America, taking place March 16-18. There will be live blogging, there will be in-depth interviews, and there will be … podcasts.
AB: That’s right. Lorin and I will be out and about on the show floor with our mics. You won’t want to miss a single episode so be sure to subscribe to Catch the Current wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.
Thanks for listening.
LC: Bye!
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