Seafood exports to Türkiye are frozen, though little Alaska product moves there

Seafood bound for Turkish buyers can't legally leave the U.S. right now, Alaska's included — though the trade at stake turns out to be tiny.

NOAA Fisheries said this week it is "currently unable to issue Export Health Certificates for fish and fish products destined for Türkiye," because U.S. seafood plants haven't been accepted onto Türkiye's approved-establishment list. Türkiye told trading partners last year that starting Jan. 1, only products from listed facilities could enter, and that health certificates "should not be issued" for anyone else.

The practical effect on Alaska is small. U.S. seafood exports to Türkiye ran $13.2 million last year, but almost all of it — 94 percent of this year's value — is product not meant for human consumption, which these certificates don't cover anyway. The edible trade that is blocked came to $160,819 so far this year nationwide, including about $20,000 worth of frozen Pacific salmon fillets shipped in May.

Alaska processors get their export certificates through the state's Food Safety and Sanitation office in Anchorage, and NOAA-approved plants here are subject to the same freeze.

What's unresolved is when it ends. NOAA says U.S. agencies are still working with the Turkish agriculture ministry to "determine a path forward." No deadline has been set for getting American plants listed.