Sealaska sells European seafood business to Japan's Sojitz

Sealaska Corporation says selling its European seafood business will let it expand shareholder programs for its Southeast Alaska communities, though neither the sale price nor the program details have been disclosed. Sealaska is the regional Native corporation for the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people of Southeast Alaska, formed under a 1971 federal law and owned by Native shareholders.

Its subsidiary Woocheen sold Sealaska Foods International Holdings Limited, a London holding company, to Sojitz Corporation of Japan, Sealaska announced Oct. 1. That holding company owns UK-based New England Seafood International and seafood companies in Norway and Iceland. Sojitz said it now fully owns them; New England Seafood sells cod, other white fish, wild Alaska salmon and tuna to UK retailers.

Sealaska bought New England Seafood in 2020. It calls the sale an exit from European seafood and did not say whether other seafood holdings remain.

Sealaska said Woocheen built value in its global business: "This transaction is the first step in its strategy to realize that value, enabling Sealaska Corporation to expand shareholder programs that directly impact its communities closer to home." It did not name the programs; its existing ones include social and cultural programs and elder and scholarship funds.

The record so far consists of the two companies' announcements. It contains no comment from Sealaska shareholders.