By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

A Kenai commercial fish processing plant bent on producing premium quality salmon products is the first seafood processing plant to be fully certified under the Alaska Quality Seafood program.

Kenai Landing Custom Processors, which processed 261,000 pounds of Kenai Wild brand Alaska salmon in 2005, chose the program because it is the only one with credibility, said Jon Faulkner, managing partner of the firm.

"It has uniform program standards in place to ensure objectivity," Faulkner said. "If you are competing in world markets, the more objective standards you have in place, the better."

The program, developed by Alaska Quality Seafoods, a division of the Alaska Manufacturers' Association, involves an initial assessment and identification of changes or improvements a plant must make to be certified. Once a company believes its plant meets all the requirements, it requests a certification audit, which is conducted by AQS. If the plant passes this audit, certification is granted, said Cheryl Cummings, AQS managing director.

The payoff has been in the product consistently earning 20 percent more than commodity prices, Cummings said. People appreciate the quality, particularly if they know the fish come from sustainable fisheries and are inspected by third-party inspectors, she said. So far, 193 fishermen have been trained to meet standards to label their fish Kenai Wild, she said Sept. 7.

Kenai Landing plant managers Sean Crosby and Karin Holbrook each have four years experience as AQS certified inspectors. All processes and procedures at Kenai Landing were audited by AQS to ensure compliance with the program, Cummings said.

The Kenai wild program, incorporated in 2002, added test sampling in 2003 and produced about 80,000 pounds of the Kenai Wild brand salmon, Cummings said. In 2004, 150,000 pounds of salmon was certified under program standards.

"Our target was to double that amount in 2005, but the figures are still coming in," she said.

The new certification process was developed in response to feedback from processors and fishermen familiar with the AQS system to provide them with plant certification options. In the first years of the program, AQS focused on educating fishermen and processors, and showing them how quality could pay off.

Now that participants understand the program and its benefits, AQS has developed a process for plants to conduct the quality program themselves, with AQS certification to verify compliance and maintain credibility. In addition to Kenai Landing, four other plants have indicated an interest in becoming certified for the 2006 season, Cummings said.

Faulkner said the obvious advantage is that AQS is the quality standard for the Kenai Wild brand of salmon, and now his plant is processing Kenai Wild salmon. "It also lends prestige to a new plant with a new concept," Faulkner said. "Having AQS says that we're not a fly-by-night operation and gives us credibility."

Kenai Landing also incorporates a number of other activities at its facility, including a restaurant and bar, lodgings, an RV park, theater and launch ramp.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at

margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.