SeaFood Business

JUL 2012

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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Top Species Pangasius lacks the name recognition that could increase sales substantially. that would compete with other whitefi sh varieties," he explains. Clear Springs settled on using the name swai, but Kahn concedes "a lot of folks don't know what to call it, so some operators just call it whitefi sh." Business has been grow- ing, and Kahn says swai is where tilapia was 10 years ago. "It takes time for it to be recognized in supermarkets, club stores and restaurants," he says. But as it becomes more familiar at retail, con- sumers will more readily ac- cept it. Kahn says it has had regional success, becoming Pangasius I t cracked the Top 10 per- capita seafood consump- tion list a few years ago, marking its rise in popu- larity, but pangasius is still working on becoming a marquee fi sh due to its lack of solid name recognition and continuing fallout from its bad press over the fi ght with domestic catfi sh. Just back pangasius farms in Vietnam, Chris December, president of QVD Aquaculture in Bel- levue, Wash., says one of the biggest current issues is keep business the shrinking credit market for seafood suppliers in Vietnam. "It makes it diffi cult to a when credit is shrinking," 24 SeaFood Business July 2012 growing from visiting more well known in Florida and along the East Coast than in the Midwest. Clear Springs is continuing Farmed whitefi sh's popularity keeps building BY JOANNE FRIEDRICK more than 1.1 million tons of pangasius, but those num- bers were expected to fall to about 800,000 tons in 2011 (according to Dec. 5, 2011 SeafoodSource article). Volume isn't the focus for he says. Banks in Vietnam are re-evaluating their port- folios. If credit is limited or cutoff , he says, the immedi- ate impact is that pangasius farmers can't buy feed for their fi sh. Farmers either go out of business, he says, or have to fi nd partners who can provide the capital that banks aren't willing to loan. While December antici- pates some impact on sup- ply, he says it's diffi cult to pin down the numbers because farmers are reticent to divulge just how many fi sh are in the ponds. "We rely on feed sales to predict what will come out of the water," he says. Supply is fl uctuating, but December doesn't see any prolonged shortages. In 2008, Vietnam produced Clear Springs Foods, which off ers value-added retail pan- gasius products as part of its portfolio, says Alan Kahn, VP-marketing for the Buhl, Idaho-based company. Marketing it as swai, Clear Springs sells Citrus Sesame, Lemon Citrus and Panko- Coated fi llets in 4-ounce and 6-ounce sizes. Clear Springs began of- fering swai about two years to work with it, he says, and is exploring other value-added coatings, especially fl avors that are on trend right now. For Fishery Products Inter- national, a foodservice brand of High Liner Foods, supply has been suffi cient to meet de- mand, says Carolyn Piscatelli, FPI brand manager. "We've had a consistent supply base," she says, noting FPI is a small- er player in this market. FPI off ers foodservice commodity fi llets and val- ue-added products using pangasius, she says. "We go for more of a premium specifi cation," she says, buy- ing untreated, chemical-free "A lot of folks don't know what to call it, so some operators just call it whitefish." — Alan Kahn, VP-marketing, Clear Springs Foods ago. "We were looking for another species [aside from the company's trout] that wasn't widely distributed in the United States and that we could add value to and fi sh with tight color speci- fi cations on the raw fl esh. Pangasius meat ranges from the least desirable and less expensive yellow to pink to the higher-priced white. Visit us online at www.seafoodbusiness.com Photo courtesy of Fishery Products International

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