Market conditions continue to pressure seafood processors

Consumers think of seafood as a premium purchase, which is not a good image when household budgets are tight and shoppers are worried about inflation.

"The problem is not the fish," said Jeremy Woodrow, executive director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. "The challenge is in the global marketplace."

Woodrow in February called the 2023 market for Alaska salmon "rock bottom" with low prices and weak demand, though maybe the industry was coming off that rocky bottom, he said then.

Now, as the season is getting underway this summer, "a lot of people in the industry are optimistic," he sa...