The seafood industry has taken a hit as coronavirus precautions have closed or restricted restaurants across the globe. Haines Packing Company is taking the new normal one local hire at a time.
Letnikof Cove. April 19, 2020. (Stremple/KHNS)
Halibut prices are low this year.
“About 25-30% less than it was last year. So halibut prices are down,” said Haines Packing Company owner Harry Reitze. He said that’s because there isn’t as much demand for fish—most restaurants are closed and they’re the seafood market’s biggest customer.
“Most of our local accounts are restaurants, so that’s gonna really hurt us,” he said.
“But luckily like we have our retail store in Whitehorse that’s been still operating and has been fairly busy.”
Reitze normally buys a load or two of halibut each spring for the Haines Packing Company, but this year he really needed it. People stocked up on fish this last month.
“Retail has been retail on the frozen canned level has been really good. There was definitely a spike in frozen fish sales there when the when COVID-19 stuff kind of first started coming out,” said Rietze.
He said that’s leveled off a bit, but he was pretty much out of halibut until local fisherman Stuart DeWitt brought in 9,000 pounds of them last week. That’s considered a pretty big catch—about half of what Haines Packing Company buys before salmon season starts in the summer.
Usually the fish are processed by a filet crew that comes up to Haines from the Lower 48. But they aren’t here yet. Rietze is waiting on coronavirus travel restrictions to lift before inviting any workers to town.
“So, we hired locals,” he said.
Six locals had a three day gig processing the fish. Rietze would have hired nearly twice that number, but coronavirus precautions limited how many people would safely fit in the facility.
He said it will take another day or two to package all the fillets, but halibut will soon be available for local delivery.
