Current Pacific Cod and Pollock harvest out of Alaska’s A Season are lower when compared with catch totals by the end of January for previous years.

The most current harvest totals on record are showing just 9,000 metric tonnes of Pollock harvested - compare this to 35,000 metric tonnes by the same time last year and 99,000 metric tonnes at the same time in 2020.

For comparison, the latest Pollock catch totals out of Russia are 141,000 metric tonnes harvested which is 4 percent more than the same time last year.

For Pacific Cod, only 12,000 metric tonnes have been harvested compared to 18,000 metric tonnes at the same time last year, and 23,000 metric tonnes by the end of January 2020.



Although there isn’t enough data to pinpoint just one reason for this extremely slow start to the A Season, Alaska’s rising COVID-19 cases and worker shortages look to be some contending culprits.

Our recommendation to buyers is as follows.

For Pollock, we suggest that buyers secure Pollock whenever there is an opportunity to buy as for the short term, opportunities on Pollock will be minimal.

For the long term, keep in mind the annual USDA contracts for Pollock that are to come from Alaskan raw materials - one recently confirmed contract was awarded to Trident Seafoods for $12.5 million worth of Value Added Pollock products for federal food programs.

For Pacific Cod, even though new season harvest is quite low, we do expect to see some new offers to start flowing down soon for H&G and value added products.

As an alternative, this may be a good opportunity to look into other whitefish options - have a look at this Buyer’s Lent checklist for a glance at some great substitutes.

The Total Allowable Catches for Pollock this year is 1.56 million metric tonnes for Alaska and 1.927 million metric tonnes for Russia.

For Pacific Cod, the 2022 Total Allowable Catch for Alaska is 132,000 metric tonnes and 186,000 metric tonnes for Russia.

CHECK OUT OUR #SeaTheGood CAMPAIGN Which Seeks To Spotlight Something “Good” Happening In The Seafood World As Opposed To Unfortunate News. #SeaTheGood

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