News Coverage
Where salmon is sold, the call of the wild
Published November 12, 2004
When a restaurant like Esca in New York, where a plate of salmon sells for $28, says it serves only the wild variety, that is not news. When Legal Seafood, a chain of 30 restaurants, adds three wild salmon dishes to its menu, that is. Seventy-five percent of all salmon served at Legal Seafood is now wild, even though the wild dishes cost $5 more.
"Sales of wild salmon had been flat, but this year they have taken off," said Roger S. Berkowitz, the company's chief executive officer. "About 50 percent order it because of fear, 50 percent because they like the taste."
The fear Berkowitz speaks of was generated by reports warning of contaminants in farmed salmon and the ecological damage that fish farms can cause. In January, an article in the journal Science confirmed that farmed salmon has seven times the PCBs and dioxins of wild salmon. While salmon is the most widely eaten fish next to shrimp and canned tuna - its high levels of Omega 3 fatty acids making it especially popular - the article advised that eating farmed salmon be limited to once a month.
After rising for a decade, sales of farmed salmon have fallen, and the wild salmon industry, which had taken a beating in competition with lower-priced farmed fish, is experiencing a small rebound. In the first three months of 2004, imports of farmed salmon were down 10 million pounds, and total sales of farmed fresh fillets were down to $140 million from $158.1 million for the same period last year, according to figures gathered by Howard Johnson of H.M. Johnson and Associates, a market research firm in Jacksonville, Ore. Most farmed salmon sold in the United States comes from abroad.
Because it is the middle of the fishing season, meaningful sales figures for wild salmon are not available. But Chris McDowell, a consultant to the Alaskan Salmon Marketing Institute, said projected sales of wild salmon fillets are an indicator of the greater demand. Last year, 5 million to 6 million pounds were sold, about 2 percent of total Alaskan salmon production; this year, the expectation is sales of more than 20 million pounds. In addition, some prices are up.
"From the southeast fisheries, one of the Alaska regions for salmon fishing, the price of king salmon, which is top of the line, was bringing the fishermen $5 to $6 a pound last winter, compared to $2.50 to $3 the year before," McDowell said. Prices are higher in the winter. "Now," he said, "they are getting $2 a pound. Last year they were getting about $1."
Supermarkets as well as restaurants are eyeing wild salmon with new interest.
Costco, which sells whole wild salmon from time to time, is exploring stocking wild fillets on a regular basis. "There's a lot of resistance to farm raised," said Tim Rose, the company's senior vice president for food and fresh foods. "Sales of farm raised were growing about 10 percent; now they are flat. So we are looking to test the waters on wild salmon in the next 90 days."
A&P supermarkets are selling silverbrite, a fresh wild salmon known as chum. It is less expensive than the better-known coho, chinook or sockeye. Chum and the most common Pacific species, pink, are generally used in patties, frozen fillets or in canned salmon. They are lighter in color, have less fat and are milder in flavor than other wild salmon, more like farmed.
Recently, fresh pink salmon fillets were at Super Fresh, one of the chains owned by A&P, for $2.99 a pound, $3 less per pound than farmed Atlantic salmon. Several of the chains owned by A&P, like Waldbaum's and Food Emporium, offer this variety.
"We have seen an increase in demand for wild salmon but we can't say specifically whether it was the study or just a demand for more natural food," said Dave Alameda, national director of seafood for A&P's 450 stores.
Most wild salmon sold in the United States is Alaskan. Because it is a carefully monitored, sustainable fishery, the supply is limited, and the catch varies from year to year. Farms account for most of the salmon sold in the United States.
Mindful of consumers' fears and environmental issues raised by aquaculture, salmon farmers are changing their methods, including buying fish feed with fewer PCBs.
Some farmed salmon producers are fighting back with claims that are causing confusion and mistrust, said Alex Trent, executive director of Salmon of the Americas, an association whose members supply 95 percent of the farmed salmon in the United States. Some farmed salmon is being promoted as organic, even though the government has not established standards for organic fish. Trent objects to that label.
He said he was particularly worried about claims from one company, Black Pearl, which on Jan. 14 issued a press release saying its farmed salmon has lower levels of PCBs than other farmed or wild salmon. "We do not want to be accused of misleading people about PCBs," Trent said. "Our levels are down but not like what Black Pearl claims."
Richard Martin, owner of Martin International Corp., distributor of Black Pearl, declined to comment on Trent's statements.
Jane Houlihan, the research director for the Environmental Working Group, which published one of the early reports on PCB's in farmed salmon, said Black Pearl made its claims based on 12 PCB chemicals rather than the 100 cited in the Science article. Black Pearl subsequently acknowledged that and has removed the PCB claim from its Web site.
Houlihan added that Black Pearl "is trying to do a lot of good things," raising the salmon without chemicals and without antibiotics. "They just need to do total PCB testing," she said.
Whole Foods markets, a large retailer of natural and organic foods, sell Black Pearl fish alongside wild salmon.
"We chose those that are the best we can get," said Margaret Wittenberg, the vice president of public affairs at Whole Foods. "We choose companies trying to do something a little bit better using better practices, trying to offer consumers a better choice."
Wittenberg said she was not aware of the objections to Black Pearl's now-abandoned PCB claims.
"I think," she said, "the message is out for aquaculture to maybe try to be as environmentally sensitive as possible and those are the ones we are looking for."