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Market Re port Visit us online at www.seafoodbusiness.com April 2014 SeaFood Business 19 Wild salmon report can get," he says. Tat said, one East Coast supplier says there is a "certain amount of slumping" going on with Alaska salmon, with "inven- tories not moving as people had estimated. I am seeing prices for sockeyes starting to fall back." Mid- March prices for wild frozen H&G; gillnet- caught sockeye were in the low-$4 range to more than $4.60 a pound depending on size of the fsh. Gillnet-caught chums were selling for the upper-$1 to low-$2 range. Frozen chum fllets were going for between $2.75 and $3. — SFB Staff Norway salmon: A tale of two markets UK demand grows but volumes slide in France N orway's salmon farmers are en- joying sustained high prices. In 2013, exports achieved a record value of NOK 39.8 billion (€4.8 billion/$6.7 bil- lion), 35 percent higher than the previous year. A total of 960,000 metric tons (MT) was produced, down 3.5 percent from 2012. Last year, the av- erage price for fresh whole Norwegian sal- mon was NOK 39.74 (€4.80/$6.67) per kilo- gram (kg), 44 percent higher than the average for 2012. Most leading producers reported very strong fnancial results, and in many cases new records were set. Teir fortunes con- tinued into this year with the Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC) confrming ex- port values of NOK 3.7 billion (€446.7 mil- lion/$620.7 million) in January and NOK 3.3 billion (€398.4 mil- lion/$553.5 million) in February. Aver- age prices were NOK 48.90 (€5.90/$8.20) in January and NOK 47.55 (€5.74/$7.98) in February. Te EU is the top market for Norwegian salmon, accounting for 651,000 MT of 2013 exports. Within the bloc, France is the main importer. However, this market has reacted more than most to the high prices and im- ported 116,940 MT last year, 7 percent less than in 2012. But while its volumes are down, the value of this market still increased by 30 percent. Across the English Channel, the U.K. mar- ket has opened the door wider to Norwegian salmon. It imported 43,890 MT of the product last year, rep- resenting a 19 percent increase over 2012. At the same time, the NSC confrmed that the average export price to the market had in- creased by 24 percent. Te United King- dom's increased appetite for Norwegian salmon is partly attributed to depleted domestic pro- duction last year, which at around 152,500 MT was 10,000 MT less than in 2012. From a global per- spective only minimal growth in production is expected, a total global harvest of less than 2.1 million MT. Analysts anticipate the average market price will rise to NOK 40 (€4.83/$6.71) for both this year and 2015. Tese analysts now value the global market for Atlan- tic salmon at around NOK 70 billion (€8.4 billion/$11.7 billion). — Jason Holland Japan salmon report (Continued from page 18) salmon skipjack tuna Is it the bottom for skipjack prices? Product glut, depreciating yen are key market factors Japan is the main market for super-frozen. But growth in the U.S. market is creating more competition, which one supplier expects will only increase. "One of the reasons perhaps our super-fro- zen has done well is the quality. Getting good- sized fsh with good grades has apparently been difcult," he says. "It seems like there's a decreasing supply." Tuna is a confusing category, he adds, as the proliferation of canned tuna products makes it harder for shoppers to fnd what they are looking for. "Part of what we need to do is make the shopping ex- perience simpler," he says. — SFB Staff P rices for a metric ton (MT) of skip- jack tuna in Bangkok in mid-March slumped to around $1,100, and some industry play- ers signal this may be the foor, with prices inching back up in the coming months. Te market is a far cry from where it was a year ago, when prices in mid-March 2013 were around $2,275 per MT. Te current prices are more than 50 percent of from the $2,400 per MT skip- jack was fetching in April and May of last year, when the market peaked. Prices this past February were around $1,275 per MT. "We believe this is the bottom and prices will begin to rebound, given slow unloadings due to limited car- rier space and full cold stores, which will im- pact supply in a couple of months and pending fsh-aggregating-device fshery closures later in the summer," says the head of one supplier. Te decline in pric- es comes as a glut of tuna has fooded the market, blamed on the large number of purse seiners out fsh- ing. Tere was some talk prices of around $1,100 per MT would be enough to get some boats to remain idle, but it remains to be seen what impact such a move would have. Super-frozen tuna keeps getting more ex- pensive, with an execu- tive of one U.S.-based player saying prices have jumped 12 to 14 percent in the last four months, though the full efect of these hikes hasn't been passed on to consumers due to the way currency mar- kets were playing in mid-March. (coho) salmon have ris- en from around 450 yen per kilogram (kg) in February 2013 to 750- 780 yen. Rainbow trout has followed the same trend, but is now run- ning about 910 yen. Te spread between the two has gradually increased in the last two years. Last year's good Rus- sian sockeye harvest led to imports in the frst six months of 2013 up 60 percent over the same period in 2012. Japanese buyers are expected to buy more, while Alaska's harvest will likely be smaller than last year and will go to meet domestic de- mand where it can fetch a higher price than in Japan. — Chris Loew 18_19MarketReport.indd 19 3/24/14 3:30 PM