The April fish report from the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) finds prices of salmon, sea bream, turbot and pangasius increasing due to supply constraints.
Higher prices from January to March for Norwegian salmon saw value rising 17.1 percent to EUR 1 billion, despite a 3.1 percent drop in volume to 207,000 metric tons.
According to the Globefish report, export volumes to the European Union, Norway’s largest market representing 65 percent of sales, fell 3.6 percent.
Higher volumes of Chilean salmon, now making a comeback on the market, most notably in the fresh fillet market, saw volumes of fresh fillets of Norwegian salmon exports to the United States falling 58 percent in the first quarter of 2011. In total, Norwegian salmon exports to the United States fell from 13,700 metric tons in 2010 to 7,900 metric tons in 2011.
Despite an ever-evolving situation in Japan due to the crisis there, exports of fresh Norwegian salmon fillets to the Japanese market showed a “dramatic” increase of 73 percent.
Tighter supplies of sea bream from key European producer Greece drove up prices dramatically in recent months (EUR 5.5 a kilogram for whole fish), according to the FAO report. For sea bass, prices of smaller sizes have weakened but operators foresee an increase in prices for portion-sized and large-sized fish in coming months.
Also in the report, the FAO underlined how the global seafood industry is making headway in terms of private standards relating sustainable sourcing. While less attention is paid by the media to business-to-business standards for fisheries products, Globefish suggests that the industry itself is pushing for best-practice standards.
“These are often demanded by retailers wanting to ensure complete sustainability of food production and may include both environmental, social and animal welfare issues as well as food safety criteria,” said the FAO.
