Food City, a Virginia-based grocery chain, is offering the following in its weekly advertising circular:
• Fresh, farm-raised salmon fillets, $5.99 a pound
• Wild-caught sockeye fillets, previously frozen, $8.99 a pound
That's a tough choice for consumers, no?
This is like asking, "Would you rather have a rib steak or a hotdog?".
ReplyDeleteI hate to admit but that is an easy choice for most consumers. After all, I have always said I prefer fresh chum or coho over frozen red salmon.
ReplyDeleteWhy is the farmed price so low?
and equally important; why is frozen red salmon at $9/pound when the processors only paid $.50 for most of it?
ReplyDeleteExactly what kind of twisted debate are you trying to concoct here in a forum for Alaska commercial fisheries?
ReplyDeleteIsn't there enough anger and frustration at the farmed industry as a result of wild salmon market price? Oh wait, all these Alaska wild salmon processors own farmed operations and drive the price down....
On a different note....looking for some diligent workers to sell GMO salmon ($2.99/lb fresh, frozen, or smoked)
When I was traveling outside in Nov. and Dec. I looked at a fair amount of salmon fillets at high end and average grocery stores in NY and MA. Unfortunately about 90% of the time the wild sockeye looked unappetizing. Frequently the wild had several gaps, was dry, yellow tinged, and looked old. The pharmed salmon presented a lot better - looked fresher and moist despite the coloring and chemicals. Although wild salmon is my favorite fish I did not want to eat the supermarket's wild fillets. I can not see much demand for the poor looking wild fish. I do not know if the cause is poor handling by the supermarkets or poor handling from deck to supermarket.
ReplyDeleteThe good news was that we handed out and shared a lot of Leader Creek sockeye fillets and most of those people commented that it was - "AMAZING", "The best salmon they ever ate", "So much better than what they could buy at a store", and "Where can we get more of this?".
The main point is that a majority of the wild salmon reaching US consumers through the supermarket route has lost too much of it's intrinsic quality and not representing the Alaska brand very well. Tim Gervais
Wouldn't it be a good thing for the consumer and the catcher if there was a catch date and a sell by date stamped on a fillet package? Wouldn't it be better if there was only a few fillets presented at a time in the display case at a grocery store? Maybe three to four at a time so the presentation stays good? It doesn't take that long to thaw a fillet let alone sell it half frozen!
ReplyDeleteI wonder who's Sockeye fillet they are selling? Tthe next question where did the farmed fillet come from? Is that farmed fillet being subsidized? Read Salmon Farming by Marine Harvest July 2015 a fully vertical integrated corporation. Is this "Food city" supermarket chain part of the vertical integration?
Carnegie, Rockefeller and Vanderbilt were vertical integrated corporations. History repeats it's self! North America's largest vertically integrated seafood harvesting and processing company — Trident Seafoods.
When Crab rationalization was introduced to Congress only one Senator said it would be a Monopoly and it wasn't Ted Stevens it was John McCain! Its not Fair Trade anymore. The big have the control, and we have nothing but debt in the company store and if don't you will!
7:10 - I agree.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking for myself, it's amazing how easy it is to be removed from the retail side of things through being a harvester. Yet, it's important to realize it's a global industry that doesn't just end when you offload.
I know that I was shocked when I ordered (3)?25 pound boxes of "premium" home pack fillets from one of the Big 3 producers... This same product was identical to what was being sold in the lower 48. About two thirds of the vacuum seals were broken, heavy bruising and blood marks on most of them... And the worst was worms that were visible within the vacuum pack.
So yes. To the average consumer that only cares about bottom dollar - I can see why they'd choose a farmed product.
Don't quite get where 5:02 is going - perhaps I should utilize my tin foil hat? But, I do agree with them with regards to a "caught date, etc". I know some of the major tuna players have started to do it, and it is actually a pretty intriguing offering.
I think that a "traceability" could present a unique opportunity.
Don't forget farmed salmon has red coloring added for appeal, otherwise consumers would back away.
ReplyDeleteWild salmon is all natural, I've been eating wild fish all my life and sockeye from Bristol Bay is my favorite fish.
The local Safeway here in western Washington just had some great looking sockeye fillets for $6.99/lb. Their farmed Atlantic was $9.99/lb. Then there was a local chain that had previously frozen coho fillets that looked horrible for $8.99/lb. Freezer burned with black spots and yellow tinged meat. At the local discount grocery store, they had humpy fillets at $5.99/lb (quite the profit margin), one poundish sized sockeye fillets from Russia that were also freezer burned at $8.99/lb and farmed kings from New Zealand that were the size of big trout for $12.99.lb.
ReplyDeleteOne of the problems I see with salmon in the supermarkets is that the quality varies so much and there seems to be no rhyme or reason in the pricing. It's no wonder we have a problem hooking people who don't know salmon. I was raised in a salmon cannery and I'm confused by a lot of what I see.
So if the fish that's for sale had a catch date, where it was caught would be the best line of defense for the average consumer to make their choice?!I think if there was shelf life date it would be good for the fisher!
ReplyDeleteOne would wonder with all the freezer burnt, black spots , yellow tinged meat being seen in the salmon at are local markets, one has to wonder if the junk in the freezers are being emptied into the local markets .Or if demand is really there and that all that left. Or does the US consumer just get the shit, broken seals etc , etc?
Let just say at and average of 65 Cents for a Bristol bay sockeye ? those are pretty good margins for shitty number three's.
So 4:38 put on your tin foil hat on and stand by the microwave and turn it on because you need a little shock treatment because I don't think you and a lot more of us are seeing the whole picture , vertical integration isn't good for the one on the bottom. google it!