Supermarket Perimeter - October 2020 - 50

Seafood: Mollusks

Demand for
shucked oysters at
Taylor has remained
strong throughout
the pandemic.

capacity. Jeff Pearson, Taylor's chief financial officer, says that's true
worldwide. But demand for larger oysters - in industry speak, smalls
and mediums - in the shell has exceeded Taylor's ability to supply it,
Dewey said.
"The high demand for the larger oysters is because they're popular
for baking and barbequing - easy and popular home preparation."
Pearson thinks Taylor could sell twice as many smalls if the company
had the supply.
Demand for shucked oysters meat, meanwhile, has been "pretty
steady" throughout the pandemic, Dewey said.
Taylor is currently selling as much or more shucked oysters as is
typical for this time of year. While popular in foodservice, shucked
has always been a popular category for consumers to purchase for
things like pan fried oysters, oyster stew and other "comfort" foods,
Dewey said.
Taylor's manila clam sales were running 80-90% of what they
typically would be for this time of year.
"Where these have been largely sold in foodservice in the past, the
bulk are now going to retail," Dewey said.
Sales of Taylor's Manila clams have been particularly strong in
Asian supermarkets and at Costco. A 10-chute weigh-bagger Taylor
purchased in Italy a couple of years ago allows the company to
conveniently package small units, typically 5-pound bags, to service
these accounts, Dewey said.
Taylor's mussel sales, meanwhile, are only about half of their typical
pre-COVID levels, also largely due to huge plunges in foodservice sales.
Taylor has approximately 750,000 pounds of mussels that need to be
harvested, Dewey said.
Unlike other crops that can be left on the beds and they just get
larger, mussels grow hanging from ropes suspended from rafts. As they
get larger, the byssal threads they use to attach to the ropes are not
strong enough to hold them, so they fall to the bottom where they are
consumed by crabs and other predators.
"We're moving some of them into our smoked Ekone brand to get
them into a shelf-stable form, however the smoked demand is limited,"
Dewey said.
Taylor typically sells half of its geoduck clams domestically and ships
the other half overseas, mainly to China. Both domestic and export
sales, Dewey said, are off by 50%. "Geoduck tend to be a high-end
50 - OCTOBER 2020

SP_Oct20.indb 50

foodservice product, which explains the drop in demand," he said. "Sales
have also been limited by the reduction in flights. Much of our product
including geoduck goes by air due to limited shelf life and loss of flights
has had an impact on our ability to service certain destinations."
One silver lining was China's Moon Cake Festival, which fell on Oct.
1 this year. Next to Chinese New Year, it's the most important festival in
China, and geoduck sales always get a boost from it, Dewey said.

Readjusting the retail/foodservice balance
Prior to COVID Taylor's gross revenue was approximately 75% from
foodservice and 25% from retail. In the second half of 2020, that balance
was more or less reversed due to the pandemic.
Taylor developed a COVID response plan early on in the pandemic,
which has served the company well so far, Dewey said.
"Our staff are adhering to the plan and we like to think as a result,
we have been spared by any major disruption to our workforce from
illnesses."
That said, Taylor had a major disruption associated with the collapse
of its markets this spring.
The company went from over 700 workers down to a low of 175.
Over 500 were laid off or put on Washington's shared work program.
"This was a huge hardship on our staff, both for those laid off as well
as those remaining who had to pick up the slack," Dewey said. "Today
we are back up to just over 500 employees."
Taylor is optimistic about getting back to normal in 2021.
"By and large we don't see a problem moving our products next year,"
Dewey said. "That assumes more restaurants will continue to re-open.
We anticipate more of a balance between retail and foodservice."
Pearson predicts that Taylor's "new normal" will be 60% retail and 40%
foodservice.
Geoduck sales will continue to lag until restaurants are back at full
capacify since geoduck does not lend itself well to retail.
It's hard, Dewey said, to educate consumers on how to prepare
geoduck and to justify the high price which suppliers have to get for it
due to the cost of production and a six-year crop rotation. In addition,
most retail outlets are not set up to hold it in a live tank.
"Specialty oysters will remain a challenge in the new normal but
we are optimistic that it will adequately recover with restaurant sales
continuing to pick up," Dewey said.

supermarketperimeter.com

9/25/2020 9:15:21 AM
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Supermarket Perimeter - October 2020

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