Three Alaska seafood giants were the latest to be awarded bids from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) purchasing program, dividing up a $12.4 million (€10.2 million) contract for canned pink salmon.

Trident Seafoods, OBI Seafoods (the newly formed joint venture between Canada-based Cooke Inc. and Ocean Beauty Seafoods) and Peter Pan Seafoods were awarded the bid, totaling 182,400 cases of canned 14-ounce pink salmon.

Trident stepped away with the majority of the contract, with $5.3 million (€4.4 million) awarded for 76,000 cases of canned pinks produced at its plant in Ketchikan, Alaska, at a price of between $67 to $72 (€55 - €59) per 24-count case.

OBI Seafoods will deliver 98,800 cases worth $6.5 million (€5.3 million), produced at its Kodiak facility, ranging from $64 to just under $68 (€52 - €56) per case.

Peter Pan will receive just over $540,000 (€444,000) for 7,600 cases produced at its Valdez operations, at around $71 (€58) per case.

The deliveries will be made between Jan. 1 and Aug. 1, according to the USDA bid announcement.

An additional 25,840 pounds of canned pink were not awarded due to vendor constraints, the USDA said.

In May, the USDA awarded the majority of a nearly $23.8 million (€20.9 million) bid for canned salmon and pollock to Ocean Beauty and Trident for child nutrition and other related domestic food assistance programs.

The USDA has made record near-purchases of seafood for federal programs this year. Last month, the agency issued a bid solicitation for nearly 2 million pounds of Alaska pollock fish sticks and fillets to be used for the agency's National School Lunch program and other Federal Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs. Bids for that contract ended Dec. 11.