CANNED SALMON MARKET.

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 32, 7 August 1923, Page 6

CANNED SALMON MARKET.

Views -were recently expressed by salmonpacking interests in the. United States that the condition of the salmon market was not appreciated by distributors. It was indicated that stocks of red Alaska salmon were about 300,000 cases, which were said to be in strong hands. Conservation measures of the Bureau of Fisheries and of the Department of Commerce, backed up by the autocratic powers of the President through proclamation, would have far-reaching effects. The pack of reds would be regulated tins year, as there had been a fixed maximum capacity set for each cannery. Regardless of the quantity of flah the pack, it is stated, will be limited for the first time in the history of the salmon business, but pinks will, not be included in'this arrangement. The maximum capacity has been fixed at 50,000 cases for each cannery The overhead charge has been determined, and as the pack will be reduced, the cost of, production automatically will be increased. Cans cost the same price as they did last year, but boxes, labour, cotton aud wire webbing are dearer. The pack in - Puget Sound this season is estimated at 500,000 cases, as against nothing in 1922. The early pack will be ready for shipment from Seattle in August. The outlook for chums was uncertain. Production of salmon in 1020, 1921 and 1922 roughly averaged 5,000,000 eases a year, while in 1919 the world's pack was about 8,000,000 cases, increased by the release of 2,000,000 cases by the Government. Salmon stocks for four years, including Canadian holdings, amounted to 25,000,000 cases It is asserted that there' has been a "clean-np" of the pack of the last four years, and that the industry enters a season of restricted pack with nothing to fall back upon except the flsh canned in 1D23.