During unstable times for global trade, some seafood merchants turn to shelf-stable fish
Thousands of wholesale seafood producers and buyers from around the world gathered in Boston for the North American Seafood Expo.
In long rows of booths at this week’s Seafood Expo North America in Boston, seafood producers dole out samples of oysters, caviar and fish sticks — even alligator and something called lobster oil at one booth.
Guillermo Aceves takes a bite of defrosted salmon sushi. “Oh yeah, I really like it,” he said.
Aceves distributes shrimp and octopus in the U.S. and Mexico for Arli Foods. He came to the Expo to add to his product lineup, and he thinks he could hook his customers on this frozen sushi from Japan.
“This is a very nice product, the sushi,” he said, “because you can keep it for one year frozen and it’s still fresh.”
Elsewhere on the floor, Rob Black, VP of sales with Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation, shows off his selection plucked from lakes in Canada.
“The big one at the back is an inconnu. That’s harvested really in the Arctic waters,” he noted. “Walleye, which you’ll see in the case here, is our most lucrative species.”
Black was one of many vendors I spoke to who were worried about more than just the quality of their product. “Everybody’s concerned about the tariff situation,” he said.
Black earns 70% of his revenue from U.S. importers, and it’s hard to tell if, when and by how much the Trump administration will tax those sales.
So, Black said, there’s not much he can do to protect himself — “because it changes. It can change daily, and there’s no sense in expending a whole lot of time or money on something that’s going to change in 24 hours.”
Other companies are taking action. Bakkafrost farms salmon in the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic, CEO Regin Jacobsen says the U.S. market accounts for nearly a third of its revenue.
“We even have our own Boeing 757, where we can fly directly from the Faroes, the fish which was alive in the morning can be all ready the next day all over the U.S.,” he said.
Even though he specializes in fresh, Jacobsen said that in an unstable trade environment, he’s leaning into shelf-stable forms of salmon.
“These days, where the tension in the world is getting higher, canned products are good because they don’t need the refrigeration or anything, and they can be stored for five years at least.”
In other words, if you can’t beat uncertainty, maybe you can outlast it.
