Trident Seafoods and Gidrostroy Holding join forces to offer fully traceable Alaska pollock under ‘Russian CertiFish' label Trace Register selected as traceability partner (update)
Seattle-based Trident Seafoods Corporation, North America's largest vertically integrated seafood harvesting and processing company, announced today the formation of a new trans-Pacific seafood partnership that will harvest, process and distribute top-quality, fully traceable Alaska pollock from the Russian Far East. The partnership with Gidrostroy Holding Co., a large, well-established salmon and pollock harvesting company headquartered on Sakhalin Island, will operate under the trademark Russian CertiFishTM, reports http://www.fishnet-russia.com/ (https://www.fishnet.ru/) with reference to an official press-release of Trident Seafoods.
"We are very enthusiastic about the expansion of our partnership with Gidrostroy," said Trident Director of European Sales, Torunn Halhjem. "This is a truly unique relationship, and it opens the door to a new era of confidence and opportunity for customers who require solid assurance that the pollock they purchase has been harvested legally and monitored carefully through every step of its processing and distribution."
Trace Register, LLC will provide full supply chain traceability to the venture. Headquartered in Seattle, with offices in Japan and China, Trace Register (http://www.traceregister.com/) is a third-party, web-based registry that allows partners to access the trail of documentation generated as specific product lots move through the supply chain.
With operations in the Kurile Islands & Sakhalin in the Russian Far East, Gidrostroy is a privately held firm headed by Russian citizen Alexander Verkhovsky. The company was founded in 1991 with the development of a small shore-based salmon facility on Iturup Island in the Kuriles. Since then Gidrostroy has grown to become the largest Russian supplier of high-quality pink and chum salmon, as well as one of the largest holders of quota for Alaska pollock in the Russian zone.
Following two major acquisitions in 2007, Gidrostroy's holdings have grown to include nearly 100,000 mt of Alaska pollock quota. The new CertiFish partnership will provide full quality assurance and traceability for that fish from its harvest to final distribution.
Gidrostroy operates a fleet of catcher-processors and shorebased trawlers producing once-frozen pollock fillet blocks as well as H&G pollock for reprocessing in China.
Trident Seafoods, which has decades of experience operating its own fleet of modern catcher-processors, trawlers and shorebased facilities in Alaska, will now provide technical support to Gidrostroy's Russian operations.
Trident will also become the exclusive sales agent for single-frozen pollock blocks produced by the Gidrostroy fleet. Moreover, Trident will provide quality assurance and production supervision for all of the H&G pollock reprocessed in China under the Russian CertiFish brand.
Beyond Trident's quality assurance, another key benefit for CertiFish customers is full product traceability. Trace Register will provide customers web-based access to important documentation following Russian CertiFish products all the way from vessel offload to final distribution.
The Trace Register system allows wholesale customers to log on and track their Russian CertiFish purchases all the way back to the vessel and the exact fishing ground, as well as a Russian inspector's report verifying that the harvest was caught by a licensed vessel and accurately reported to fisheries authorities for application against the quota.
Chinese producers
Meanwhile, according to Seafood.com reports, the price of Russian pollock for processing soared to $1800 per metric ton as per the second week of October 2008 reaching the highest level ever.
In this situation the agreement between Trident Seafoods and the Russian producer Gidrostroy, gives Trident Seafoods company the control of 1/6 of the pollock raw material from the B-Season in the Russian Far East reportedly making the Chinese and Korean processors extremely worried about the future of their supplies of Russian pollock raw material.
Commenting on this news of the US media source, a representative of a large Russian fishing company called this "rumours", expressing his doubts about both quota share of Gidrostroy Company and the fact of such rapid price growth as well as both direction of the price change and correctness of the price for the double frozen fillet.
For more information about Certifish brand, contact Trident Seafoods at 800-367-6065; 206-783-3818; sales@tridentseafoods.com.
Irina Menshutkina, President
PolarBear Seafoods Inc.
(a wholly owned subsidiary of Gidrostroy Holding Co.)
206-229-0183
Andy Furner
Trace Register, LLC.
206-621-1601 ext. 115