Board members of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute have selected Jeremy Woodrow as the new executive director of the public-private partnership between the state and the seafood industry that promotes this multi-million-dollar renewable resource.
“The ASMI board is proud to have a life-long Alaskan with close ties to the Alaska fishing industry lead Alaska seafood’s global marketing efforts,” said Jack Schultheis, board chairman.
“The Alaska seafood brand is as strong as ever and we are confident that Jeremy’s leadership will advance the direction and mission of the agency.”
Woodrow has served as ASMI’s interim executive director since last December, and as communications director since 2017. Before that he was the communications officer for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.
Woodrow, who holds a bachelor’s degree in public relations and advertising from Northern Arizona University, grew up in a family of commercial fish harvesters in Juneau.
Now at the helm of ASMI, he said the big focus will be on opening new overseas markets in Southeast Asia. ASMI will receive $5.5 million in federal dollars over the next three years in relief funds made available to agricultural industries in response to increased tariffs. ASMI also has been very successful in receiving some $4.5 million annually from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to market seafood overseas.
ASMI is working with Agrisource, in Bangkok, Thailand, as marketing representative for the Southeast Asia that deals in consumer markets as well as reprocessing markets, to tap new marketing for wild Alaska seafood and places for reprocessing.
ASMI is also looking to expand into South America, Woodrow said. To that end ASMI’s overseas marketing representative in Brazil will expand operations to include all of South America and also look for potential connections for reprocessing of seafood there, he said.
With this broader reach into overseas markets, however, ASMI will also deal with the issue of human responsibility in fisheries.
“Labor standards are becoming an increasingly larger issue for fishing organizations,” he said, and the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation has produced documents on labor on fishing vessels in Alaska, to show it is fair to workers, he said.
“We ha tackled sustainability (of fisheries). The next issue is human responsibility. We will only engage with partners who can show they can meet global standards (of fair labor practices,” he said. “It is all part of the chain of custody” (of the seafood).”
Research has shown that more customers these days are shopping with their ethos in addition to their wallet, he said.
Woodrow also noted that while ASMI is getting additional federal funds that state funding of ASMI is now reduced to zero.
“We have to be sure the dollars we have to spend are very focused and deliver the best returns to the fishing industry,” he said.
ASMI’s expense plan for the next fiscal year will be around $18 million, with the major of those funds going to increasing international markets, he said.
