End of Year Note. From Avi
Hello Everyone, this is Avi writing on behalf of Friedman Family Fisheries, Inc. As the 2025 salmon selling season draws to a close, I would like to reflect on the past 4 months, since we started on September 4. You all have run us ragged, and we've enjoyed every moment of it. We were able (barely at times) to keep up with demand the entire time, minus just a few instances in the very recent past, which we got straightened out.
Normally, over the years, freshly frozen salmon sales have outstripped smoked salmon sales by 3 to 2, generally speaking. This year, there is less than 1 pound difference between sales of smoked salmon and freshly frozen salmon. You guys absolutely piled into our smoked salmon; it was incredible. One thing that greatly helped us was the relatively cool weather in much of October, when I was able to smoke 10 loads. Normally, historically, I've been able to smoke 5 or 6 loads in October, but with the weather warming up in general lately, I think last year I only smoked two times in October. This October was therefore a gift to us. I don't really like sneaking in a load of smoked salmon when the weather is at maximum acceptable limits, but I know how to do it, what the limitations are, I was very careful and it worked. We got the job done.
And for all the years I have been smoking salmon, I've been using 3 racks. There's 10 fillets on one rack. This year we soon added a 4th rack so we could keep up with demand, meaning we smoked the equivalent of 40 fillets at one time. Trust me when I say we were very VERY busy. It does take some hours to pull pin bones, cut to order size, and vacuum pack everything. Not to mention smoking itself. But we got the job done. I'm sure we smoked between 1,300 and 1,400 fillets of salmon. Believe it or not, we are about 70% through our inventory.
As you might expect, we're going to keep moving ahead with smoking salmon until it's all gone. Friends, this might sound weird because who is thinking about summer right now, but the fact is that if you do want salmon for summer cookouts, now is the time to start thinking about what you'd like. My wife, who comes up to the fish site 3 or so weeks after I get there, tells me almost every year someone calls up asking for salmon and she has to tell them that every bit of it is gone. I'm not trying to be funny here, I'm trying to get the remainder of our salmon to as many people who want it for summertime use, before our inventory is all gone.
Noris, Celia, and myself want to thank you for your support. We cherish your many kind comments. In truth it's a highlight of our lives. We appreciate every one of you, our beloved customers, some of whom have now been buying our salmon for 30 years, since we started.