The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has chosen Trident Seafoods for its bid for 16,720 cases of canned pink salmon.
The product will be used for the agency's National School Lunch program and Federal Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs across the United States. Trident was awarded $779,988 (€736,794), according to the bid.
The USDA bid is for cases containing twenty four 14.75-ounce cans of sockeye salmon.
The USDA has been ramping up its purchasing and bid requests for both wild salmon and pollock this year, following marketing groups pleas for help with cutting the glut and making room for even more fish.
Processors blame high levels of unsold inventory from last year's season, weak consumer demand and collapsing wholesale markets for the low prices, some of the lowest in decades.
In September Trident Seafoods, Pacific Seafood, National Fisheries Institute (NFI) and other major seafood businesses and organizations drafted a national sign-on letter asking for United States Congress to create a new office for seafood policy in the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), boost seafood use in federal nutrition programs and increase access to USDA economic programs as part of the 2023 Farm Bill.
"Crushing market shifts, cost burdens, supply chain vulnerabilities, and foreign market access challenges have caused a crisis throughout the US seafood supply chain," the letter says. "Lost opportunities to participate in programs that support food production and resilient food supply chains harm the entire seafood sector and put US producers at a competitive disadvantage at home and abroad."
