ANALYSIS: Will Retail Features Keep Increasing Heading into the Holiday Season?

After the traditionally slow pre-Thanksgiving period for seafood promotions, things look to come back with a roar for the holidays. Most of the major seafood retail items, except for salmon and tilapia, are trading at lower prices than last year in December. And both salmon and tilapia have positives that may support more retail promotions over the holidays. For salmon, it is the higher prices of whitefish, that make it a more attractive staple. For tilapia, it is the heavy buying ahead of Chinese tariffs that...

ANALYSIS: Japanese Exports Affecting Canadian Scallops; U.S. Market Unsettled

Premiums are developing in the Canadian sea scallop market as approximately 95% of the offshore quota has been caught. Frozen inventory levels are not as abundant compared to previous years and one factor contributing to this are fewer exports from Japan into Canada.

This past year, while Japan harvested the same number of scallops as expected, the harvest was of a smaller size, attributing to about 25% less product available for export. Less exports, paired with strong domestic demand in Japan ...

Pangasius Import Volumes Recover Somewhat After USDA Equivalence Ruling for Vietnam

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Analysis] by Lorin Castiglione - October 9, 2018

For the first time all year and since government regulation has switched from the FDA to the USDA, pangasius imports are within range of the previous three-year average.

August imports of frozen pangasius fillets registered 22.2 million pounds from Vietnam, the largest monthly import volume for 2018. Volumes have increased again, after a significant 62.3 percent increase for the month of July, gaining another 11.6 percent into the month of August.

August 2018 falls only 3.3 percent short of ...

ANALYSIS: Imported Volume of Farmed Salmon Fillets at all Time Highs Amid 6 Weeks of Steady Pricing

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] by Janice Schreiber - September 19, 2018

Consistency and growth in the farmed salmon market out of Chile have been the theme as of late. This is a bit of an anomaly in comparison to previous years. The farmed fillet market would typically see unsold product hitting the spot market in fairly regular spats or, on the other hand, product in the spot drying up due to disease issues, labor strikes, or natural disasters ...

ANALYSIS: Uncertainty Exists Around Lobster Exports to China

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] by Liz Cuozzo - August 6, 2018

The recent announcement of the retaliatory tariffs by China has caused much speculation in New England as to how it will affect the lobster industry.  The bottom line is that it is still too early to predict what the fallout will be.  However, the consensus is that it does not bode well for the US market.

The US exported $128 million worth of lobster to China in 2017, which was up 56% from 2016 ...

ANALYSIS: Farmed Salmon Going Through Dramatic Market Correction After Mother's Day

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] by Janice Schreiber - June 8, 2018

After a 9-week rally through Mother’s Day, the farmed salmon complex is going through a somewhat dramatic market correction.

Over the past 3-4 weeks, the market has been weakening across the farmed salmon complex; all origins – Canada, Chile, and Europe – have been adjusting lower, some rather significantly.

The fresh Canadian West Coast 10-12 whole fish market has seen a $0.80 drop in price, which is a 18.6 percent change in the last four weeks ...

ANALYSIS: Surge of Canadian Halibut Pushing Prices Down to Five Year Low

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] by John Sackton and Liz Cuozzo – May 16, 2018

Fresh Atlantic halibut is trading at a five year low, and it is affecting prices for Pacific halibut as well, which are also at five year lows.  The last time Pacific Halibut was quoted by Urner Barry below $6.50 for 10-20 lbs. dressed halibut was in 2013.

The primary driver is the loss of much of the East Coast market to Pacific Halibut. This is because Canadian production continues to increase ...

Pricing for 20-30 Count Scallops Upside Down, as U-10 and 10-20 Prices Fall Lower

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] by John Sackton – May 10, 2018

Scallops are priced by size with U-10 and 10-20 count scallops usually selling at a premium over smaller 20-30 count sizes.

Currently that relationship is upside down.  For all natural scallops and dry scallops, 10-20’s are now priced lower than 20-30 count.

And U-10’s, which in January were priced $4.50 per lb. higher than 20-30’s, are now quoted at only a $1.00 premium.

The same pattern is true for processed scallops as well.

This is all due to a shortage of 20-30 scallops...

SEAFOOD: A Decline in Shipments from Canada Leads Lobster Imports Lower in 2017

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Urner Barry] by Jim Kenny - February 9,2018

Imports of lobster products from Canada declined 8.1 percent in December and 4.5 percent in all of 2017. Live was down 7.6% for the month, but was up 1.5% for the year. In-Shell, which includes tails and whole cooked, was down 9.3% in December and 5.4% in 2017. Meat was down 15.4% for the month and 20.9% for the year.

Imports of cold water lobster tails are down 6.7 percent Jan-Dec.

Imports of warm water lobster tails fell 2.8 percent in the month of December, but the annual total was 15.2 percent higher. The rise in 2017 imports is largely attributable to the increase in shipments from the Bahamas and Brazil which were up 50.8 and 33.6 percent respectively.

All imports were 8.1 percent lower ...

ANALYSIS: NZ Mussels - September Imports Fall 75%; Lowest Ever Recorded

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] by Lorin Castiglione - November 8, 2018

Urner Barry quotations for Green Shell Mussels imported from New Zealand were recently pulled due to there not being sufficient inventory within the market to quote an accurate price for the commodity. Toxic algal blooms in New Zealand earlier this year caused the closure of most mussel farms and with the latest September import numbers recently published, we are seeing just how much of the production was affected.

Import volume for September recorded the lowest numbers ...

Recap: August Shrimp Imports Higher; First Monthly Increase Since April

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] - October 5, 2018

Imports of warmwater shrimp products increased for the first time since April, up 8 percent in the month of August. The eight-month total now stands 4 percent higher.

India (+13.4%), Indonesia (+34.5%), Ecuador (+43.6%), Vietnam (+1.8%) and China (+8.0%) all shipped more shrimp to the U.S. in the month of August. Thailand (-55.2%) was the only major supplying country to ship less shrimp.

Increases were seen ...

Lobster Import Volume Higher While Shrimp Imports Lower in July

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] Analysis by Jim Kenny - September 5, 2018

July import numbers were released on Wednesday, and according to the data, the month saw the volume of lobster products imported into the U.S. increase 3.5 percent compared to July 2017. However, the same can’t be said for shrimp.  

Imports of all lobster products in July totaled 10.38 million pounds, a 3.6 percent increase year-to-date. Market Reporter Jim Kenny reports that imports of lobster products from Canada increased 4.5 percent in July; and that imports of cold-water lobster tails are ...

ANALYSIS: May Gulf of Mexico Shrimp Landings Largest Since May 2009

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] by Jim Kenny - June 25, 2018

The National Marine Fisheries Service is reporting May 2018 Gulf of Mexico shrimp landings (all species, headless) of 16.281 million pounds compared to 14.585 million pounds in May 2017. This is the largest May total since 16.288 million pounds were landed in May 2009.

The Louisiana fishery led all Gulf states in May with landings totaling 10.369 million pounds. This is considerable since there hasn’t been a single production month in excess of ...

ANALYSIS: Shrimp Replacement Cost From Indonesia Lower Than India

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] by Angel Rubio – May 21, 2018

As a continuation of last week’s discussion, this week we look at replacement cost trends relative to prices in the wholesale market and U.S. spot wholesale, particularly for size 16-20.

In many cases the replacement costs can serve as a future indicator of the U.S. market, however, we know that these two markets can also be disconnected. For example, there are times when replacement costs overseas rise while the U.S. wholesale market trends lower. In this example, in theory, the U.S. importer would take a more cautious buying position ...

ANALYSIS: US Shrimp Market Weakening to Lowest Prices of the Post EMS Era

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] by John Sackton and Angel Rubio – May 15, 2018

The US shrimp market is weak, and is approaching its support levels of the post EMS era, according to Urner Barry’s market analysts.

Everyone knows that shrimp prices in the US have been steadily declining for at least a year, and that the decline accelerated since the beginning of 2018.  This is not surprising given the increases in global production and the record levels of US imports in 2016, 2017, and the first months of 2018 ...

European Wholefish Imports Up Over 90% Year-To-Date From Norway and Scotland 

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Seafood News] by Janice Schreiber - March 6, 2018

European wholefish imports up over 90% year-to-date from Norway and Scotland. One of the themes in the fresh wholefish category for 2017 was the increase in imports from Europe. Norway ended the year with a 97.7 percent increase year-to-date and...

US Shrimp Imports set Record in 2017, up 10% Over Prior Year

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Urner Barry] by Paul Brown, Jr. - February 8, 2018

December shrimp imports were just released and were 10.6% higher for the month, leaving year end imports for 2017 10% higher than a year ago.

Imports were led by India with 32% of the market share. Indian imports were up 32% in December leaving year end imports up 39%.

Indonesian imports were 17.8% higher for December and almost even for the year with 2016. Thailand imports were down for both December and EOY. Ecuador imports were up in December and slightly lower for the year end. Vietnamese imports were lower while ...