Bumble Bee Foods President and CEO Jan Tharp has joined the board of directors of Gathered Foods, the developer of plant-based seafood analogs under the Good Catch brand.

Tharp’s appointment comes just after Bumble Bee and Gathered Foods announced their joint distribution venture on 2 March, a partnership that will see the former “leverage its sales, distribution and logistics expertise to ensure that consumers nationwide have access to Good Catch products at affordable prices.”

Regarded as a “transformational leader within the industry, among her peers, and with Bumble Bee employees,” Tharp will leverage her extensive seafood sector experience and expertise while seated on Gathered Foods’ board, the plant-based alternatives company said in a press release.

Author: Madelyn Kearns / SeafoodSource | Read the full article here

Houston-based food distribution giant Sysco will send workers to Kroger distribution centres for temporary work.

In a press release, the restaurant supplier giant Sysco writes that under the agreement, its workers in the United States who have been temporarily furloughed due to the dramatic decline in foodservice demand from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will have the opportunity to work at Kroger locations for 30 days, or more, as agreed upon by both companies.

Kroger is the United States’ largest supermarket by revenue.

SalmonBusiness reported this month that Sysco announced that it is “actively pursuing new sources of revenue by leveraging its supply chain expertise to provide services to the retail grocery sector”.

“During these unprecedented times, we are pleased to partner with Kroger, as both of our companies work to respond in an agile manner to meet the rapidly evolving needs of our associates and our communities,” said Kevin Hourican, president and chief executive officer of Sysco. “This agreement will benefit many of Sysco’s associates by creating good work opportunities with a respected company, while at the same time helping to alleviate strain in the food supply chain due to a surge in demand at retail stores.

Author:Owen Evans / SalmonBusiness |  Read the full article here

Sea Data Center, the leading data provider of market data, information and analysis for fisheries and aquaculture, proudly announces that VSV have selected Sea Data Center as their main provider for seafood market data and analysis.

Anna Björk Theodorsdottir, Managing Director, Sea Data Center and Oddvar Husby, Logistics Director Maritech →

Sea Data Center, also a representative for Maritech Systems in Iceland, a world leader in customized software solutions for the seafood industry, provides key information on global seafood supply and price information that enables their customers to benchmark their products to the market.

Sea Data Center's market information can be delivered through both the web portal seadatacenter.com as well as through a Microsoft Power BI analytics tool.

With this agreement, VSV will have direct access to all market data collected by the Sea Data Center with full flexibility in presentation and reporting, including an editing function enabling VSV to produce their own reports benchmarking their own data against the market to secure competitive pricing.

A NUMBER of Norwegian fish farming companies have called on their government to press Moscow to lift its ban on salmon flights over Russia during the Covid-19 crisis.

The call has come from Sjømatbedriftene, the Federation of Seafood Businesses, which says the move would go some way to relieving a beleaguered salmon export sector.

Several Norwegian media outlets are reporting that federation CEO, Robert Eriksson, who has also been critical of a recent government decision to grant processing exemptions to Mowi and Lerøy Seafood, has requested that the transport minister, Knut Arild Hareide, should take up the issue as a matter of urgency.

Eriksson said: ‘I want him to make contact with his Russian colleague to look at the possibility of exempting the Russian air space, so that airlines that can now assist will have the opportunity to fly Norwegian seafood out to those markets that want it.’

It is though those markets include Japan and South Korea, which seem to be getting on top of coronavirus.

But there are also signs that China is beginning to open up again. Last year, Norway exported more than 260,000 tonnes of salmon by air, much of it to the Far East.

Author: Vince McDonagh / Fish Farmer | Read the full article here

By far the largest aquaculture producer in the world, China produced more than 50 million tons of farmed seafood last year, more than three-quarters of its total production of 64.5 million tons. That level of production makes China a vital market for aquafeed companies such as Cargill.

SeafoodSource talked to Henry Tang, the managing director for North Asia at Cargill Aqua Nutrition Group, about how the sector is changing in terms of investment, species development, and government policy, and how feed companies like his are responding to changes being implemented by the Chinese government affecting China’s aquafeed sector.

SeafoodSource: What are your views about how the Chinese aquaculture market is developing, especially in terms of new products and new trends?

Tang: The annual growth rate of aquaculture production in China remains very fast and steady. We have to understand that consumers’ seafood choices are very diversified in China, and there are many cultured species. Alongside the growth, consumption demand is changing from people “eating enough” to people eating “quality and healthy” seafood. We believe that the development and application of new raw materials can significantly improve the quality and flavor of aquaculture products, and we have done much exploration in this area. Cargill has been advocating a safe, responsible and sustainable way to help the world thrive, in the use of byproducts, which is what we continue to focus on.

Author: Mark Godfrey / SeafoodSource | Read the full article here

“Our business has exploded in the last two weeks”. There are some wildly different experiences for smaller but key salmon suppliers across the country

As the coronavirus causes lockdowns and has shut down the restaurant industry indeterminately, fish suppliers that deal in salmon are each facing rapid changes to the market place.

A spokesperson from The Cornish Fish Store based in the South West of England told SalmonBusiness that “we are still dealing, still open” but that it was struggling with transport.

Not worthwhile
She said that fleets were out getting crab and wild catch – but the real issue was with Scottish salmon. “Grimsby market is closed and it’s not worthwhile for companies to come here without visiting Grimsby”.

The issue is transporting – or rather the government coronavirus rules on permitting trucks of Scottish salmon to drive all the way down to the south of the UK. “If it doesn’t change the way it is going, we may have a real issue”.

Author:Owen Evans / SalmonBusiness |  Read the full article here