The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded contracts for seafood from the Pacific Northwest worth more than USD 17 million (EUR 15 million), following requests from politicians and seafood organizations to do so.
Clackamas, Oregon, U.S.A.-based Dulcich, which owns Pacific Seafood, snagged the largest portion of the contracts – USD 9.3 million (EUR 8.4 million) for Pacific whiting.
Westport, Washington, U.S.A.-based Ocean Gold Seafoods will supply both whiting and rockfish in a contract worth nearly USD 5.1 million (EUR 4.6 million), and Bornstein Seafoods was awarded a contract to supply USD 2.9 million (EUR 2.6 million) worth of rockfish.
The large U.S. West Coast groundfish purchase was previously announced in mid-July by U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), along with U.S. Representative Suzanne Bonamici (D-Oregon), U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Oregon), and U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-Oregon).
Bids for the purchase went out in August.
“We greatly appreciate the efforts that the USDA has made to support our [seafood] industry in recent years. These continue to be extremely challenging times, and we cannot overstate the significance of the USDA’s actions to expand procurement programs to include greater quantities of domestically produced seafood,” the Oregon legislators wrote at the time.
The legislators originally said the USDA would buy USD 22 million (EUR 19.9 million) worth of Pacific rockfish and whiting, but the agency said in the award notice it could not award 9,000 cases of Pacific rockfish “due to price consideration.” Additionally, it could not award 17,100 cases of rockfish fillets and 3,600 cases of whiting fillets due to vendor capacity.
West Coast fishermen and processors have faced many challenges following the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the West Coast Seafood Processors Association, the industry has faced competition from low-cost, imported proteins, low restaurant foot traffic leading to lower sales, and global trade disruptions due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
