The United States is at risk of losing its Asian seafood supply to Chinese buyers due to overly stringent import controls, according to Jerry Knecht, the founder of Portland, Maine, U.S.A.-based North Atlantic Incorporated.
Knecht, who sold North Atlantic Inc. to Slade Gorton in August 2021, now lives in Bali, Indonesia, where he formerly operated P.T. Bali Seafood International until selling his stake in the company in March 2021. Knecht was a 2018 finalist for the Seafood Champion Award for Innovation for his efforts to improve worker rights in Indonesia, including the introduction of a worker empowerment initiative.
“The U.S. has made the process of importing seafood so complicated in agreeing to a lot of NGO demands, that Indonesian processors prefer less-complex Asian buyers,” he said. “We have to have FIPs [fishery improvement projects], social audits, and labor contracts. The way the processors look at it, these NGOs started out as tools for transparency but are now using the U.S. marketplace as muscle. The Indonesian processors are saying, ‘I can sell to Korea with no complications,’ so there is a shift away from supplying American buyers.”
Knecht said Indonesian processors had preferred to focus on the U.S. foodservice market because they say it’s easier than processing for retail. But they lost that market during the depths of the pandemic, he said.