Application of Canadian redfish in Asian seafood market

Sebastes is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the subfamily Sebastinae part of the family Scorpaenidae, most of which have the common name of rockfish. A few are called ocean perch, sea perch or redfish instead. They are found in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Redfish  are red or orange-red in color and have very large eyes. Starting from June 15, 2024, after 30 years of commercial fishing, the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) reopened the commercial fishery in the UNIT 1 redfish fishing area in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The total commercial quota for redfish in 2024-2025 is 60,000 tons. With the gradual opening of commercial fishing of Atlantic redfish in Canada, the fishing quota in the future will be able to reach 300,000 tons, which means that there are enough redfish products to supply the global market.

Canada is the largest producer and processor of Atlantic redfish, mainly providing whole fish, headless and gutted, skin-on fillets, skinless fillets, bone-in or boneless fillets to the global market. Currently, headless and gutted, fillets, and fillets are mainly exported to the US market, while whole frozen redfish are mainly exported to the Asian market.

South Korea and Japan are Asian countries with a long tradition of seafood consumption and are also important players in the global seafood market. Canadian Atlantic redfish also performs very well in these two seafood markets, especially the Korean market. According to export data from Statistics Canada, Canada's exports of Atlantic redfish to South Korea showed an annual growth trend from 2021 to 2023.