was canned for the account of the union and sold mostly through its 

 membership. The latter method of selling was reported to have met 

 with little success. Most of the albacore sold fresh, through est- 

 ablished retell channels, was used for home freezing or home canning. 

 It is reported that the use for these two categories was about equal- 

 ly divided. To add impetus to this method of marketing, the fisher- 

 men's union prepared and distributed instructions for freezing, cook- 

 ing, and canning the tuna. 



During the 1952 season the fishermen's union made no attempt to 

 sell albacore direct to the public, since the price offered by can- 

 nery operators was sufficiently attractive to discourage direct sales. 

 There were isolated instances of attempts by individual fishermen to 

 sell directly to the consumer in 1952 but withlittle or no success. 

 However, during the 1951 season a great deal of publicity was given 

 this subject through newspapers and radio and the public was sympa- 

 thetic to the problems of the domestic tuna fishermen. It is not ex- 

 pected that direct sales to consumers in the manner described above 

 will continue regularly but they might be attempted again if the unit 

 remuneration to the fishermen from the canneries is markedly reduced. 

 There is also a small mari<et in Seattle for fresh and frozen tuna for 

 home canning . 



In the large city markets, such as Boston, New York City, Chi- 

 cago and elsewhere, there is a constant market for a small volume of 

 fresh and frozen tuna. Italian-Americans and others from southern 

 European stock are the primary users of fresh and frozen tuna. The 

 usual methods of preparation are frying, broiling, and baking. Fresh 

 and frozen tuna is also used to some extent by Orientals in the 

 United States. 



There is some belief in California that frozen tuna would find 

 a ready and wide market if packaged in consumer size packages in the 

 form of frozen fillets and steaks. But this has net yet been tried 

 on a large scale. There is some question whether such a product 

 could compete successfully with fillets of bottom fish which are much 

 lower priced. The tuna price structure is more comparable to that of 

 salmon and halibut. 



To say categorically that there is no possibility for the ex- 

 pansion of the tuna market through products other than canned tuna 

 would be unduly pessimistic. It is difficult and perhaps unwise to 

 attempt to predict what may happen in this field. As food industries 



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