This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

            The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute has recently changed its marketing plan and slogan for the Japanese market. That's because the old one, still in use elsewhere, didn't translate well. ASMI communications director Tyson Fick in Juneau said that problem has been known for some time.

-- (ASMI 1                  35 sec              "So we changed the tagline ... and our own brand.")

            Fick said the old tagline, the decade-old "wild, natural, sustainable," will continue to be used in America and elsewhere.

-- (ASMI 2                  29 sec              "We're always re-evaluating ... another icing on the cake.")

            Elsewhere in Asia, China last year became Alaska's biggest overseas trading partner with over $1-billion in exports through October, eclipsing Japan. A lot of the decrease in sales to Japan was from the ending of Cook Inlet natural gas shipments. A lot of the increase to China came in seafood - but, Fick says it's not as simple as that:

-- (ASMI 3                  23 sec              "A good portion of that ... in terms of end consumers.")

            On the other side of the globe, ASMI has recently opened a marketing office in Brazil, of all places:

-- (ASMI 4                  39 sec              "I didn't know it until recently ... products from Alaska there.")

            Fick says another surprising foreign market that is emerging is the Ukraine, where loose salmon roe known as ikura is especially popular.

                                    ###