SEATTLE, Wash. — The United States, Malaysia, Spain, and the United Kingdom rank as the most favorable future markets for Wild Alaska Pollock demand growth, according to a newly released landmark report that explored the export market opportunities for the fish, the Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP) announced today. The release of the report marks the conclusion of a months-long, comprehensive process conducted by renowned firm McKinley Research to support long-term industry investments in market diversification and international marketing efforts for Wild Alaska Pollock.
GAPP contracted with McKinley Research Group for market research on current and potential future markets in early 2021. This research provides GAPP and its members with objective, data-driven assessments about current and potential future Wild Alaska Pollock markets over a mid-to long-range time horizon (year 2040). The research supports focus and prioritization of GAPP investments to support these markets and build global demand. Some of these markets are right for GAPP to conduct marketing activities in-country while the study shows that other markets will be perfect for Wild Alaska Pollock to find business partners to further process our fish for the extended regions that market serves, or will serve, in the years ahead.
“GAPP invests heavily in research for this very purpose—to identify long-range opportunities to build demand for our fish,” said Craig Morris, GAPP CEO. “It’s hard to overstate the impact of this study—our industry now quite literally has a prioritized treasure map leading us to the most valuable future markets for our fish and provides us the tools to boldly market our products in those countries with the highest return on our investment.”
While the three-phased research approach identified the United States, Malaysia, Spain and the United Kingdom as the most favorable future markets, those four were closely followed by six other markets including France, Germany, Japan, Poland, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates, from where GAPP CEO Craig Morris just returned from an in-depth trade mission. The markets that ranked as “most favorable” are those that were identified by McKinley as “having the greatest opportunities for important growth with investment, in near-term or by 2040,” and those that ranked as “favorable” were noted as those that are or have the potential to be important markets and are “relatively stable” in terms of demand for Wild Alaska Pollock.
“We know that much of our growth can and will be outside of our domestic market,” said Rasmus Sorensen of American Seafoods, who chaired the research on this important project. “This report and the research behind it underscores the service that GAPP provides to the industry—helping us understand our opportunities and then working with us to strategically leverage those through marketing and communications, partnership and innovation, to the best possible extent to drive value for the entire fishery.”
Beyond market identification, the research also illuminated some significant conclusions to drive long-term international growth, including that the size of the population and the relative purchasing power of market is critical; that cultural food tastes change more slowly than originally thought and that many markets will require product innovation to break-through and sustain long-term growth and demand.
“We are pleased to help GAPP identify the most favorable global markets for wild Alaska pollock products,” said McKinley Research consultant Heather Brandon. “Our team utilized a data-driven approach and insights from industry leaders to support our recommendations.”
Not only will this research drive GAPP’s international marketing efforts, but perhaps more significantly, also its partnership programs.
“As we look to continue expanding our Partnership Program into more foreign markets, this research has now provided us with prioritized pins on a map of where to seek out new partners and drive investment in innovation,” said Morris. “While the U.S. will always be a focus of our Partnership Program, the Board has long wanted us to ‘go global’ in expanding our Programs and now we can prioritize those markets with the best opportunities for the future.”
