Pressure on large salmon pushes prices down.
“Prices are adjusting a little down again. Things stalled earlier in the week, but the end of the week is starting to fill up. There is some leftover fish. We have indications in the north of 3–6 kg at NOK 68, 70 and 73 ($6.80/€5.78, $7.00/€5.95 and $7.30/€6.21),” an exporter told SalmonBusiness.
“And then the gap between 4–5 and 5–6 won’t be so big. The larger fish are a little down. China has started to adjust prices slightly. I’m not sure what the reason is.”
He notes changes in trade flows, partly due to tariffs in the US market.
Storage
“We are noticing that there is a lot of volume going from the US to Southern Europe. And more fish from the Faroe Islands, where prices have been slightly lower.”
Many market players have taken the opportunity to freeze fish at the lower summer price levels.
“There is quite a bit of fish in storage. It has been impossible over the past month to get freezing capacity in the north.”
But there is still enough fresh fish on the market to send prices down — for the first time in two months.
“Prices are relatively much lower on large fish, but only slightly down on industry sizes. China is probably a driver,” he says.
Heavy
The industry sizes, between three and six kilos, usually account for around two-thirds of export volume.
“NOK 68, 70, 72 ($6.80/€5.78, $7.00/€5.95, $7.20/€6.12). It’s impossible to have a NOK 3 ($0.30/€0.26) spread between 4–5 and 5–6 next week. The 5–6 and 6+ categories have been particularly heavy this week. And we expect the same next week,” says a trader.
“Yes, in that range. A very challenging week, unfortunately. 6+ around NOK 80 ($8.00/€6.80),” comments another trader.
“The price has been under pressure this week. It went up a bit too much. We have sold at a loss this week. The airfreight market has been difficult. Storms and closed airports in Hong Kong may have had an impact, but the price on large fish has been too high. 5+ has been priced too high,” says an exporter.
Larger fish
“Chile has a lot of fish, and that could be part of the reason. The fish are larger than what is being reported — really, that has been the case all along.”
Transport remains a bottleneck. The railway and the E6 near Levanger are still not repaired and are unlikely to be anytime soon.
“We have paid NOK 100,000 ($10,000/€8,500) in freight from Troms to Oslo. It’s a hell of a circus,” he says.
“Things tightened a little towards the end of the week,” says another exporter. “There was fish available — it wasn’t empty. NOK 2–3 ($0.20–0.30/€0.17–0.26) down from last Friday. There’s a limit to how much prices can rise. Easy for things to get overhyped. It’s a long way to Christmas.”
