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An Analysis of China's Hop Market

(Originally written for Bryant Christie Inc.) As U.S. hops producers look to expand exports, China shows significant promise as a potential new market for U.S.-produced hops. The country’s booming beer production, as well as a combination of a lack of availability of domestically-produced, high-quality hops and an increasing demand in beer, create an economic environment that will almost certainly require importation of foreign hops. While U.S. hops producers are in good standing to fill this demand, there are important yet surmountable market challenges facing them. Between the years 2000 and 2010, Chinese beer production growth rate hit 103%, with a 6.2% increase in beer production between 2009 and 2010. While economy-priced beers make up 85% of the market, premium beers are growing in popularity, and demand for beer is expected to continue to rise for at least the next two decades as the country’s middle class expands. Given the rising demand, the Chinese beer industry wil...
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Lobster industry waiting ‘with bated breath’ on US product hitting the market

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(Original link: https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2017/06/26/lobster-industry-waiting-with-baited-breath-on-us-product-hitting-the-market/) Following a tough spring season for Canada's lobstermen, the industry is waiting to see what effect US lobster will have on high prices once it starts entering the market in the next few weeks. Canadian fishermen faced a colder-than-normal spring this year, which meant less lobsters in traps. "Lobster has been a mess this spring," Inland Seafood chief operating officer Bill Demmond said. "The season in Canada was terrible. The water temperature was too low." Demmond estimated the season brought in about 60% of what was caught last year. "That's put everyone under the gun on lobster. There's not much frozen inventory," he said. According to another source who wished to remain unnamed (source A), buyers decided to keep prices up as a result of poor catches. Prices to boats began at CAD 8 ($6.0...
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Aging workforce poses challenge to Alaska fishing’s future

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(Original link: https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2016/12/06/aging-workforce-poses-challenge-to-alaska-fishings-future/) An ongoing Alaska study slated to be published in mid-2017 will be one of the first to offer potential solutions to a problem known as the “graying of the fleet” — the shrinking proportion of young fishermen in the state. The increasing average age of Alaska's fishermen is seen as a growing issue according to researchers behind the project, called “Alaska’s Next Generation of Fishermen.” “As many Alaska permit holders approach retirement age, the decision of the next generation about fishing will impact coastal communities,” the group wrote on its website. In 2013, the average age of Alaska fishing permit holders was just under 50 years old, up a decade from the 1980 average. The number of Alaska residents under the age of 40 who hold permits has fallen from 38% in 1980 to 17% in 2013. The study, funded by the North Pacific Research Board and the grou...
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Alaska’s southeast Dungeness fishery healthy, despite domoic acid fears

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(Original link: https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2016/09/07/data-shows-alaskas-southeast-dungeness-fishery-went-as-expected-despite-west-coast-domoic-acid/) Recently-released data on southeast Alaska’s summer Dungeness crab fishery suggests that that market was not affected by the elevated domoic acid levels that devastated the US west coast Dungeness industry. Scientists began to notice extremely high levels of domoic acid, linked to an algae bloom along the US west coast, in late spring, and in June west coast states began to close many of their shellfish fisheries — some of the largest shellfish closures ever. California’s Dungeness crab fishery was the last to open up, which crushed the state's fishermen. On the other hand Alaska, which also produces Dungeness crab, managed to avoid severe damage to its Dungeness crap industry. According to Kelli Wood of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Alaska’s zone A fishing industry — which is a major source of the crab — was...
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From UW to NPR in less than a year: How Katelin Chow got her dream job

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(Originally published on the Society of Professional Journalists Western Washington Chapter's blog) Katelin Chow (Photo: Lucas Anderson) Less than a year after University of Washington graduate Katelin Chow earned her degree in journalism, she managed to land what she calls her dream job. “I feel really lucky,” Chow said. “Every morning I wake up I think to myself, ‘Oh wow, this feels so surreal.'” Chow currently works as a digital journalist for NPR, covering race, ethnicity, and culture for NPR’s brand new Code Switch team, aiming to spark online conversations and tells stories through social media and blogs. Chow’s attraction to journalism began in high school, but her love of writing began earlier, following the death of her mother when Chow was only 13. “That had a really big impact on me,” Chow said. “It made me really interested in writing and telling stories, because I used writing as a mechanism to cope with grief. After writing a lot about myself and w...
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The Seattle Globalist: A glimpse into entrepreneurial journalism

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(Originally published on the Society of Professional Journalists' Western Washington Chapter blog) Nearly a year after the birth of the Seattle Globalist, a daily online news source that focuses on international stories grounded in Seattle’s local community, co-founder Sarah Stuteville sat down with me to discuss her journey and what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneurial journalist. As a Seattle Times columnist, professor of entrepreneurial journalism and co-founder of nonprofit news site Seattle Globalist, Sarah Stuteville is a busy woman. Stuteville, along with fellow Hunter College graduates Alex Stonehill and Jessica Partnow, co-founded the Common Language Project (which in 2009 became the Seattle Globalist) in 2006. Now Stuteville balances grading papers and writing articles with doing what a new crop of  journalists are doing more and more — running and growing their own news organization. “We were interested in doing multimedia international jour...
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