Unchartered waters in 2009 for Alaska seafood
USA: Last fall's economic downturn in the United States and the world, combined with a new administration moving into Washington DC, is sending the Alaska seafood industry into a sea of uncertainty.
The industry is marked by hope for market improvements, eased credit restrictions and that President Obama, when in office, will develop a positive attitude towards the industry. According to a recent article in the Alaska Journal of Commerce (AJC), the industry is also packing a lot of hope into a future economic stimulus package expected from the new administration in Washington DC.
Gunnar Knapp, an economics professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage's Institute of Social and Economic Research, told the AJC that "the bottom line is that there is a lot of uncertainty about what the effects of the economic crisis may be. "It may affect the Alaska seafood industry in a variety of ways, and the effects could vary for different species and regions, depending in particular on their markets."
Knapp stressed that it is also important to look at the uncertainty of the resource itself, as well as the industry. Other key factors are that nobody knows how significant the global economic problems are, or how deep and how long they will last.
According to the article, Dr. Knapp said that "potential effects of the economic crisis on the salmon industry could include everything from reduced consumer demand for seafood to credit problems for buyers and sellers of seafood". "If seafood buyers such as wholesalers and food service and retail buyers have difficulty getting credit, this could reduce demand even if consumer demand weren't affected," he said. "How big a problem this maybe will depend crucially on how quickly or not problems in credit markets get addressed - which I just don't know."
As long as this is a global issue, Alaska's competitors will most likely be affected in the same way and not be able to supply markets. This could help the Alaska industry.
