The U.S. Department of Agriculture will buy up to $50 million worth of Alaska pollock, according to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. The estimated 15 million pounds of pollock will go toward supplying food banks and other food-aid programs around the country.
“We all appreciate the quick response by USDA to address the needs of the seafood industry and at the same time, food insecure Americans, by committing to purchase what may be more than 15 million pounds of wild Alaska pollock products,” ASMI Global Food Aid Director Bruce Schactler said in a statement.
The recent buy is just the latest influx of cash to Alaska’s seafood industry from the federal government. The USDA spent about $200 million purchasing seafood like salmon and pollock last year, according to Schactler. It also purchased $200 million worth in 2023.
Alaska pollock is the country’s largest fishery by volume, but it was among several species that saw prices plummet in 2023. An October report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also pointed to massive losses for the seafood industry as a whole that year.
That’s partly because harvest from Alaska’s waters has struggled to compete on an international stage.
The USDA buy also comes after another bad year for pollock fishermen in the Gulf of Alaska. The fishery’s B season came to a close months early because of an “unprecedented” amount of Chinook caught as bycatch, or incidental harvest.
The A season for the pollock fisheries in both the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska start this month.