Is Salmon Jerky the Next Million-Dollar Snack Food?
“They were trying to tap into ... what it’s like to live in Alaska.”
Source: Courtesy Dear North
The bags of Dear North salmon jerky bites that will arrive on Whole Foods Market shelves in Northern California this month are another sign of America’s seemingly endless appetite for snack foods. They’re also the result of an early stage collaboration between Huna Totem, a 40-year-old corporation in Juneau, and Ammunition, the company best known for designing Beats headphones.
In 2013, Huna Totem, which is owned by Alaska Native shareholders and generates most of its revenue from tourism, realized it needed to diversify so its business wouldn’t dry up every winter. The company wanted to create a consumer product made from Alaskan resources that would appeal to residents of the Lower 48. “People want a bottle of Alaska, but we had to define that bottle,” says Dear North’s president, Anne French.