SeaFood Business

MAY 2014

SeaFood Business is the global trusted authority for seafood buyers and sellers. We are the seafood industry's leading trade magazine with more than 30 years of experience. Our coverage is based on the "business" of buying and selling seafood.

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Throw Backs Catch 'em when you can From a cottage industry on Chesapeake Bay, softshell crabs go global C an you tell a Jimmy from a sook? Know what separates peelers from busters? Our article Te Soft-Shell Crab Industry removed the mystery from the odd softshell terminology and explained how the critters became a culinary sensation here and overseas. Tied to temperature, salinity and phases of the moon, the shedding that occurs 18 times or more during a blue crab's lifetime creates a small window of opportunity for harvesters to capitalize on peak value, mostly each May. Some equated the holding tank system for controlled shedding as one of the oldest forms of aquaculture. (A Jimmy is a male crab, a sook is a mature female; peelers are ready to shed while a buster is already backing out of its shell.) Men in the middle Top seafood buyers dish on strategy, quality and service Out of recess Top suppliers increase sales as proft margins erode A shaky economic outlook shadowed the release of the annual Top 25 North American Seafood Suppliers list in 2010, for it would reveal one entire year of sales after the global economic downturn. If one thing was clear, the industry's eyes had turned to retail, as the foodservice arena — historically accountable for roughly two-thirds of all seafood sales — was only beginning to show signs of life. "As consumers shifted their behavior from dining out to eating in, retailers and club stores were able to capture a greater share of consumer food dollars," said Kim Gorton, CEO of Slade Gorton & Co. in Boston. Te time was right, she added, to focus on educating consumers so that their homemade seafood meals would be more successful. B uyers are a crucial supply-chain link between the water and the table, wielding power to infuence production practices and consumer behavior. In our article Power Purchasing we picked the brains of fve buyers about merchandising and educating. Carl Salamone of Wegmans Food Markets said the job has one true focus: "You're a buying agent for the consumer, not a selling agent for the supplier." Ron Rogness, then working for Long John Silver's, said preparation was paramount: "It's not a good industry to be surprised in, because usually the surprises are bad ones." And Rick Cavanaugh of Queen Anne Triftway had a simple measuring stick: "When a customer tells me, 'Tis is the only place I buy my fsh,' then I've done my job." May/June Vol. 9, No. 3 June Vol. 19, No. 5 1990 2000 2010 For updated NEWS, go to www.SeafoodSource.com May 2014 SeaFood Business 11 June Vol. 29, No. 5 06_11NewsRecap.indd 11 4/21/14 8:07 AM

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