Alaska Glacier Seafoods plans new fish processing factory.

Alaska Glacier Seafoods Co. plans to build a new plant at Auke Bay in Juneau this winter because its current facility is "bursting at the serous," president and founder Mike Erickson said.

The popularity of the company's seasoned caviar in the Japanese market, combined with the demand for Alaska salmon in Southeast Alaska and down the West Coast, is driving the expansion, Erickson explained.

Though the new plant will likely process the same amount of fish as the old one, it will allow the company to focus on value-added products ranging from salmon caviar to IQF salmon and halibut fillets, and possibly smoked fish. The seven-year-old firm might also expand to processing Pacific cod and freezing more fish for value-added processing throughout the winter.

"The benefits to the municipality are jobs and raw fish taxes, and the benefit to fishermen is to have another processor to sell to, especially locally," Erickson said. Juneau, like all municipalities in Alaska, receives half of the state-collected raw fish tax revenue front seafood processed in the city.