Circle salmon sales

Fledgling processor Circle Seafoods announced its frozen salmon fillets "have officially made their debut" in H-E-B stores across Texas and Sprouts Farmers Market stores nationwide.

Here's a picture of the pouched product.

Which would you buy?

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?

'From boat to throat'

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute has an interesting analysis on its website looking at the "salmon value chain."

That is, who receives what share of the ultimate (retail) value of a fish.

One example is a typical 6.5-pound Bristol Bay sockeye delivered chilled to a processor for fillet production.

For the 2011 season, it broke down this way:

• Fisherman, $8.45 or 29 percent of retail value
• Processor, $10.53 or 36 percent of retail value
• Distributor, $2.42 or 8 percent of retail value
• Retailer, $7.94 or 27 percent of retail value

The analysis offers similar breakdowns for troll-caught Chinook salmon and seine-caught canned pink salmon.

An ASMI contractor, the McDowell Group, did the analysis as part of the April edition of the Seafood Market Bulletin.

How much would you pay for pollock?

On a recent family visit in Tennessee, I took a minute to check out some prices in a newspaper circular from Food Lion, a supermarket chain.

Pork tenderloin, $3.99 a pound
Semi-boneless lamb leg, $5.99 a pound
Pollock fillet, $5.99 a pound
Porterhouse or T-bone steak, $7.99 a pound
Sockeye salmon, $8.99 a pound

The ad didn't say if the pollock was fresh or frozen.

Regardless, Deckboss was surprised to see pollock commanding such a hefty price!