Global Food Collaborative

Alaska Glacier Seafoods opened a new seafood processing facility in Juneau, Alaska in 2005 and we figured it was definitely time to introduce you to their business.

Mike and Jim Erickson (father and son) are partners in a family business, Alaska Glacier Seafoods, located just North of the Juneau Airport at Auke Bay.     The family is proud of their business and products and touts their fresh product as highly prized, as it is often caught relatively close to their processing plant and processed a short time after to assure the highest possible quality.     Their most recent purchase of an ozone machine is designed to continue their goal of producing and retaining a quality product with maximum yield for their customers.The Erickson family has roots in Petersburg, Alaska as commercial fishermen.  Upon their re-location to Juneau, they continued to harvest and sell their catch, which was primarily shrimp at the time.   The growing demand for their product convinced them to open a stand where they sold their locally harvested product.    Nearly a decade later they had expanded into processing a  diverse range of Alaska seafood beyond what they harvested themselves.   As the clientele grew, they took the step of building their own seafood plant which opened nearly 4 years ago. 

That plant sells almost exclusively wholesale with fresh and frozen salmon, halibut, black cod, rock fish; dungeness, king and tanner crab and sea cucumbers.   Alaska Glacier can support its customers with filet product and has a pin bone removal system, as well as the new ozone system mentioned earlier. 

What makes Alaska Glacier Seafoods unique?     They are located in the Southeast Alaska hub city of Juneau where the commercial harvesters generally harvest product relatively close to the plant location.   Fresh seafood is normally caught and processed within the same day and shipped out by air to Seattle or connecting locations from the Juneau airport - only minutes from the plant.    Alaska Glacier is proud of their experience at "converting traditional frozen customers" to a world class fresh and wild Alaskan product.     What else makes Alaska Glacier Seafoods unique is their size and ownership.   They are family owned and on-site.   When the market changes, they recount their experiences of being able to adapt to their customers changes due to their size and ownership.   "We're attentive and our customers get personal attention.  We can shift gears (within reason) for our customers and they really like that we understand the market is not stagnant ", says Jim's wife and office manager, Kristie Erickson. 

How would Alaska Glacier Seafoods like to collaborate with others?      

Of course transportation in and out of Juneau is a challenge, whether it is fresh or frozen product due to the lack of road connection and limited options for transport.    They would like to see collaboration of producers to create the critical mass necessary to have additional transportation options.     They are convinced that the fresh seafood from their region could be expanded to generate a good part of that export product and would encourage working with others to further market Alaska fresh seafood from the region, at the same time working with others along the supply chain of food who may have transportation solutions that would go along with this marketing effort and provide customers a quality product and good value. 

How to learn more about Alaska Glacier Seafoods?

Mike and Jim Erickson, Co-Owners
907 790 3590
alaskaglacierseafoods.com