Japanese seafood buyers visit Unalaska


Wednesday, January 31 2007
Unalaska, AK – A delegation of high-powered Japanese seafood buyers and producers is in Unalaska today, touring UniSea's Dutch Harbor processing plant.
Executives from the C.G.C. Group, the largest seafood-buying co-op in Japan, arrived today, along with Noaya Kakizoe, the president/CEO of Nippon Suisan (Nissui), the Japanese seafood giant that owns UniSea Inc. Top executives from the company's American branch and UniSea are here as well. Last year C.G.C. bought nearly $15 million worth of seafood from Nissui, and is planning on tripling that amount next year.
UniSea President/CEO Terry Shaff is also in town to meet with the buyers. Speaking at the Unalaska Airport this afternoon shortly after their plane arrived, Shaff said that certain areas of UniSea's Dutch Harbor plant are of particular interest to the co-op.
"Their biggest interest[s] here in coming to visit our operations are with pollock roe and with crab, so we'll be concentrating on showing them both products," he said.
UniSea's Dutch Harbor plant supplies much of Nissui's pollock roe, red king and opilio crab and surimi, which is used to make imitation crab meat and other products for the Japanese market.