'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.