What may be good for the cod resource globally, might not be so good for Alaska’s Pacific cod market. Harvest levels for 2013 in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska are around 320,000 metric tons and will most likely be around the same for the upcoming year.
Unlike the European markets, namely Russia, Iceland, and Norway their cod quotas are expected to increase in some areas by up to 10% in 2014. John Whiddon, the general manager at Pacific Seafoods in Kodiak shared his thoughts about global cod stocks earlier this year.
“There is a huge Russian component, over a million metric tons was leased in the Barents Sea quota. We’re also seeing resurgence in the N. Atlantic. So there is cod coming from a wide variety of places around the world, which is creating an oversupply of cod.”
The over supply of cod fish worldwide will likely have a negative effect at prices seen at the dock. It is a simple case of supply and demand. To make matters worse there are the high transportation costs from Alaska to China.
“Right now the cost to get the same cod coming from Russia to China is about half the price of the transportation cost from Kodiak to China.”
Another competing element is other white fish. For many . . . cod is just another whitefish protein, like pollock or tilapia.