Research

Synopsis of the Live Seafood Market in North America.

Problem: Ethnic Chinese comprise the largest Asian ethnic group (23%) in the U.S. They have a long history of consuming live seafood. This work seeks to identify the constraints and opportunities to develop a live fish fishery in Alaska for the domestic ethnic Chinese market segment in North America. This will be achieved by conducting phone and personal interviews of potential and existing buyers/traders of live seafood, and by conducting a regulatory review of live seafood interstate commerce in the U.S.

Solution and Approach: The overall objective of this work is to develop a positional paper on the opportunities and constraints of developing a live finfish market to the Chinese community in the U.S. from an Alaskan perspective. The specific objectives for this work are:

1. To identify the marketing variables: product, price, distribution, and communication currently existed/demanded by the marketplace among the Chinese community in the U.S. and the Hong Kong.
2. To conduct a comparative regulatory survey regarding to the shipment of live food fish in selected states and countries.
3. To learn about live finfish transportation technology and supply chain management technology first hand and to transfer lessons learned to policy makers, stakeholders, and researchers in Alaska.
4. To determine the feasibility and concerns of developing an Alaskan based live fish fishery using best management practices base on current market and regulatory conditions.

Note: This project is ongoing.

Contact person: Dr. Quentin Fong email: qfong@sfos.uaf.edu