American Seafoods

American Seafoods Company is a major seafood company based in Seattle, Washington. The Company was established in 1987 and is today a subsidiary of American Seafoods Group. The company is well known for its Alaskan Bering Sea pollock fishery operation. It manages a fleet of large catcher-processor vessels, also known as factory trawlers, where the fish is caught, processed and frozen onboard. The vessels averages over 300 feet in length and produces primarily pollock roe (fish eggs), surimi (used for various products such as imitation crab meat, also known as crab sticks), fillet blocks, headed and gutted fish and fishmeal.

American Seafoods is a member of the Pacific Whiting Conservation Cooperative.

American Seafoods is the largest harvester in the U.S. Bering Sea fishery with approximately 45% catcher-processor market share.^[1]

In 2001, American Seafoods Group formed Pacific Longline Company, and began operating freezer-longliner vessels that range in length from 125 to 140 feet. These vessels focus on the U.S. Bering Sea Pacific cod fishery and produces headed and gutted cod that is sold primarily in the European, Asian and North American markets.

American Seafoods Group purchased Southern Pride Catfish Company in 2002, including its subsidiary, Southern Pride Trucking, Inc., and entered in to the business of catfish harvesting, processing and distribution.

History

American Seafoods Company was created in 1987 by Kjell Inge Røkke, a Norwegian fisherman who had quit school at 16 to go to sea. During the next four years Røkke invested in a number of old boats which he modified into very advanced factory trawlers at Norwegian shipyards. In 1994, he established Norway Seafoods (now Aker Seafoods) as a holding company to coordinate the activities of the company.

Røkke established himself in the Alaska pollock fishery in Seattle, and is today one of Norway's richest men, at one point owning or controlling 31 fishing vessels in the Bering Sea, the Pacific and the Atlantic.^[2]

In 1998 the American Fisheries Act (AFA) passed, requiring that certain fishing companies, including those engaged in the Alaska pollock and cod fisheries, be American-owned.^[3] This caused American Seafoods Company to scramble for American owners.

Eventually a group of U.S. investors led by Centre Partners Management purchased the company in 2000 for $485 million and created American Seafoods Group as a holding company.^[4]

American Seafoods Company Fleet

References

1. ^ American Seafoods Company|
2. ^ Greenpeace
3. ^ United States Court of Appeals published documents.
4. ^ The Seattle Times

External links

• Corporate Homepage