DOES ALASKA SALMON COME FROM CHINA?

Even when fish are caught in U.S. waters, they may end up being shipped to China for processing before being sent back for sale to American consumers. This is the case for roughly one-third of the fish and seafood that’s caught domestically; it gets sent to China to be portioned out, skinned, deboned, and packaged and then re-imported to the U.S. The industry is worth billions of dollars and the practice has been growing over the past couple of decades. It has also made China the biggest exporter of fish to the United States—even as China itself contends with allegations of unfair practices when it comes to operating its fishing trawlers to supply the country’s own immense demand for fish and seafood. While it may seem wasteful to ship the raw material to other nations (including Vietnam and Thailand and even Chile), ultimately it’s pure profit that motivates the roundabout route: Trident Seafoods founder Charles Bundrant says a task that would cost $1 per pound of labor in the U.S. can get done in China for 20¢. The prevalence of food-safety scandals in China makes this processing practice a concern, even if fish is caught in the U.S.