 Federal Food Program Helps Reduce Canned Salmon Inventory May 10, 2002
The latest offering seeks purchase of over 50,000 cases of canned pink salmon, worth almost $1 million, and an announcement for the purchase of $1 million of breaded pink salmon patties is pending. Over the past year, the USDA has purchased a total of almost 600,000 cases of canned pink salmon and almost 700,000 pounds of pouched pink salmon. "The USDA's purchase of such significant amounts of salmon should be particularly welcome news to fishermen and processors who are struggling because of the large carryover inventories of canned pinks," Knowles said. "Government purchases of Alaska salmon help strengthen prices paid to fishermen and provide federal food assistance programs such as schools, food banks, and charitable institutions with a healthy and tasty source of protein." Responding to strong returns of wild salmon and declining prices paid to fishermen, Knowles has repeatedly pushed for federal purchases of Alaska salmon by supplying market information, advocating the fishermen's concerns, and seeking to expand product utilization by federal food programs according to the news release. Now in its seventh year, the combined Agriculture Department purchases of Alaska salmon have totaled over $70 million. As in past years, the Alaska Department of Community and Economic Development will work after the upcoming fishing season to provide the USDA with information regarding run size and market inventories to help determine the level of future salmon purchases under the federal Agricultural Marketing Service program. Salmon delivered under this program must have originated from landings of U.S. flag vessels. All USDA purchases are on a competitive bid basis. More information is available at www.ams.usda.gov/cp.
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