Ray Riutta
Executive Director, Alaskan Seafood Marketing Institute
Ray Riutta has held the position of ASMI Executive Director since August, 2002. He has guided the organization through pivotal changes, including legislative action to restructure ASMI and increase its revenue stream. He has implemented new marketing initiatives and a multi-million dollar consumer advertising campaign for Alaska Seafood.
Prior to joining ASMI he served in the US Coast Guard for 34 years retiring at the rank of Vice Admiral. He had numerous tours in Alaska and in Washington, D.C. He spent many years at sea sailing in the Bering Sea, the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean in command of Coast Guard Cutters. During his tenure as District Commander for Alaska he served as a member of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council and has worked closely with the Japanese Coast Guard while in command of Coast Guard forces in the Pacific. During his service career Ray traveled extensively in Europe, Asia and Central America, and lived in London, England for 3 years while assigned to the US Embassy.
For more than 40 years, Japan has been Alaska’s largest and most stable seafood export market.
For more than 40 years, Japan has been Alaska’s largest and most stable seafood export market. Japan remains today the world’s largest seafood buyer and is a key importer of Alaska seafood items like Pollock surimi, Pollock roe, herring roe, sockeye salmon, king crab and snow crab, as well as others. In the past ten years, the value of Japanese seafood imports ranged between US $17.23-17.96 billion with import volume ranging between 2.8-2.9 million metric tons. After China, the United States (Alaska predominantly) is the second largest seafood exporter to Japan (2008 figures), making Japan a crucial market for Alaska seafood and for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.
The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) opened its first overseas marketing office in Japan in 1987. The goal of the ASMI Japan is to increase general awareness of Alaska seafood as a wild, natural and sustainable resource among Japanese trade and consumers. To achieve this goal, ASMI Japan conducts a variety of consumer and trade PR and promotional activities such as retail promotions, parent-child cooking classes, restaurant menu promotions, high school home-economics class collaborations, as well as trade-targeted shows, seminars and receptions.
In 2008, 172,831 metric tons of Alaska seafood were exported to Japan, valued at $635,486,000. A wide variety of seafood species are exported to Japan and in 2008 considerable increases in value and volume were seen for snow crab, king crab, sockeye salmon, herring, Pacific cod, Greenland turbot, and sole.
