Tag Archives: seafood processor

Trident Seafoods announces plan to streamline, modernize operations

Trident Seafoods, a corporate giant among North American seafood processors, is looking for potential buyers for four of its shoreside plants in Alaska as part of a restructuring plan announced on Tuesday from its headquarters in Seattle. Such bold action is necessary to deliver fair value to fleet, communities and all stakeholders into the future, said Joe Bundrant, CEO of the company built by his father, Chuck Bundrant, starting more than 50 years ago with a single fishing vessel. Bundrant said he remains confident overall of the Alaska seafood industry and Trident’s role in it. He acknowledged these significant changes and said the company is focused on treating its impacted employees and communities with the respect and compassion they deserve. more, >>click to read<< 13:43

A seafood processor from the Îles-de-la-Madeleine in serious financial difficulty

With an estimated debt of between $3.5 million and $4 million to its lobster fishermen, the Madelinan seafood processing company LA Renaissance des Îles (LRDI) has decided to place itself under the protection of the Act respecting the ‘insolvency. This is what the president and CEO and sole shareholder, Lynn Albert, announced to the fishermen who supply her with lobster, during an information meeting held on Friday morning, learned the QMI Agency. LRDI is in default of payment for its dockside purchases from 66 fishermen for the last two weeks of the 2022 fishing season, totaling $3.7 million. Added to this are, among other things, deductions for government rebates and other operating expenses of fishing businesses. >click to read< 07:34

Coronavirus cases detected at Alaska seafood plant

Seattle-based Trident Seafoods reports that four workers at the company’s Akutan, Alaska, seafood plant have tested positive for coronavirus, including one who had difficulty breathing and had to be evacuated by air to a hospital in Anchorage. The Akutan plant in the Aleutian Islands is a processing hub for Bering Sea harvests of pollock, crab and cod, with a workforce of 700 employees that will swell in the weeks ahead to 1,400 people. >click to read< 07:29

Struggling seafood processor hopes to come back stronger under new ownership as ‘New Peter Pan’

Peter Pan, the seafood processing company with an array of plants in Southwest Alaska, had been struggling to keep up with competitors. So when its owner, Japanese seafood giant Maruha Nichiro, initially announced its sale of Peter Pan to three private equity groups, it said it expected a loss of almost $28 million. The deal means the company is now vertically integrated, so all stages of production and marketing — usually operated separately — are now under one owner. It also places Peter Pan under American ownership. >click to read< 15:46

Oregon: Dungeness crab season a go as fisherman, California Crab Fishermen Reduce Asking Price

After more than three weeks on strike, commercial Dungeness crab fishermen accepted an offer of $2.75 from Oregon processors. But Pacific Seafood’s offer has strings attached. “All the boats that are delivering to Pac Choice have to deliver their first two offloads to Pac Choice guaranteed,” said Tyler Leach “Which means they can’t go to an alive buyer, they can’t go to anybody else whose offering a better price at that point in time.” The fleet was hoping to be offered upward of $3,,, “We sat for a very long time so hopefully it will go up shortly after we get fishing.” >click to read< 07:50

California Crab Fishermen Reduce Asking Price To $3.10; Representative for Processors Says COVID-19 Effects On Dungeness Market Continue>click to read<

Juneau processor sanitized, screened, quarantined but Coronavirus still got in

On July 4, a Juneau resident who works at Alaska Glacier Seafoods started showing COVID-19 symptoms. He quarantined at home immediately and got tested. “Unfortunately, you can be contagious for days prior to showing symptoms,” said Jim Erickson, vice president and co-owner of the company. “That’s what makes this disease so hard to get in front of.” Health officials who investigated the case say it resulted from community spread — not from inside the plant. “We’re not sure where he contracted it initially, because he’s probably not sure,” Erickson said this week. “I mean, let’s face it, you could pick it up anywhere.” >click to read< 15:10

Seafood Processor Pleads Guilty to Massive Crab Meat Switcheroo

A Virginia seafood processor has pleaded guilty to falsely labeling millions of dollars worth of foreign crab meat as a “product of the USA,” the Justice Department announced Wednesday. James Casey, owner and president of Casey’s Seafood Inc., entered his plea in federal court in Newport News, Virginia. Prosecutors said he admitted conspiring with others to substitute foreign crab meat for Atlantic blue crab and, as part of the plea, admitted to falsely labeling more than 183 tons of crab meat, which was then sold to grocery stores and independent retailers.>click to read<17:35

Social media post criticizes Trident Seafoods, Gulf of Alaska trawl fleet for halibut bycatch

A fisherman based out of Homer posted images on social media of halibut bycatch headed for the grinder at Kodiak’s Trident Seafoods processing plant. The post got a lot of attention online and sparked criticism of Trident, the Gulf of Alaska trawl fleet and a body that regulates the commercial fishing industry. Trident is the largest primary processor of seafood in the United States and is heavily invested in Alaska. “We’re a company built by fishermen for fishermen and we don’t just buy pollock or cod or crab or salmon or halibut, we buy everything that we can sustainably harvest and feed the world with. Halibut is a very important part of our business,” said Lumsden. Longtime fisherman Erik Velsko says if Trident really cares about halibut and sustainability some things need to change. >click to read<18:59

Seafood processor will pay $300,000 fine for oversized fish waste piles at two Alaska plants

Trident Seafoods has agreed to pay a $300,000 penalty and remove an underwater pile of seafood waste near Sand Point in a settlement with the federal government involving Clean Water Act violations at two Alaska plants. The infractions also involve the Seattle-based company’s seafood processing plant at Wrangell in Southeast Alaska, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday. At both facilities, Trident exceeded the one-acre limit on seafood processing waste piles it can discard into the water under its permits, the agency said. >click to read< 11:40

Don Cuddy: Blue Harvest a major new presence among city fish houses

New Bedford is the top-grossing fishing port in the United States and has been since 1999; an enviable record and a tribute to the vision and expertise of all those involved in sustaining an industry that is constantly evolving. While industry momentum has not flagged, the players come and go as markets shift, regulations change and fish stocks rise or fall. Seafood processor Blue Harvest Fisheries is a big presence on the waterfront today yet the company was unknown in the city until relatively recently. So last week I had a chat with CEO and Acushnet native Jeff Davis, a 30-year veteran of the seafood industry, to learn more about Blue Harvest and all that they do. click here to read the story 20:06

Seafood Processing Company Pushes Forward With New Jobs Plans – Video

CURRIE – Construction continues at the future headquarters of Acme Smoked Fish of North Carolina, and so does the company’s push to fill jobs. Read more here 11:35