RPT - US Ban On Russian Seafood May Lead To King And Snow Crab Shortages - Industry Sources

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd March, 2022) The US ban on Russian seafood imports could lead to a shortage of king and snow crab in the United States, industry representatives told Sputnik.

President Joe Biden earlier in March announced a ban on US imports of seafood, alcohol, and diamonds from Russia over Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine.

"There will be supply chain disruptions due to the ban beginning with king crab and snow crab," Les Hodges, the former director of business development for Keyport LLC and former CEO of Vantage Seafood and the Talon Group, told Sputnik.

Russia represented over 90% of US king crab imports in 2021, with the United States bringing in 31 million pounds, according to Hodges. The US also imported 42 million Pounds of snow crab from Russia, representing 31% of the product category total, he added.

"The US has relied on Russian king and snow crab for many years," Hodges said.

Hodges pointed out that this year Alaskan king crab production was curtailed with the cancellation of the red king crab season, which limited output to 4 million pounds, and a harvest of only around 6 million pounds of golden king crab. Meanwhile, the snow crab quota in 2022 was 5.6 million pounds and is about to be completed.

"Once the current inventory of Russian king crab is sold, it will basically be unavailable in the market place," Hodges said. "There is a little Norwegian red king crab but not enough to have an effect."

Canada is a major producer of snow crab that is expected to provide product to the United States and the world, but with limited competition prices could rise for consumers, Hodges said, adding that their season will begin around the end of March.

"The importers who handle king and snow crab will definitely be affected as will those further down the supply chain," Hodges said. "I expect that some will go out of business as crab is the Primary income source."

Hodges predicts that prices on products that compete with Russian seafood may increase due to the lack of market competition.

Mark DeCristoforo, executive director of the Massachusetts Seafood Collaborative, which is a broad-based coalition of harvesters, processors, and wholesalers in the region, told Sputnik there is not a great deal of Russian seafood product that moves through the US system, however, it has definitely been helpful for filling certain voids in the US market, such as snow crabs, haddock and pollock fish.

"For the most part, the places that those products from Russia go, the pollack or the king crab, they typically are frozen abroad, shipped over here... they usually fill our big box stores Costco or Walmart or something like that," DeCristoforo said.

DeCristoforo said he does not expect anyone to lose their jobs in the restaurant industry or processing industry in the US state of Massachusetts due to the ban.

DeCristoforo said the European Union and the United Kingdom could face a tougher time meeting demand if they impose similar actions against Russian seafood.

So far, the European Union and United Kingdom have not imposed bans on Russian seafood.

"I can't speak for the Nordic countries, but I'm not sure that they're going to be able to necessarily make up for what they're going to lack," DeCristoforo said.

Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24 after the breakaway Donbas republics appealed for help in defending themselves against the Ukrainian military. The Russian Defense Ministry said the special operation is targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only.