ANALYSIS: Lobster Prices Firm as Industry Faces Supply Shortage

Competition for product from shippers, and the live market has...

ANALYSIS: Pangasius Imports Gain 10 Million Pounds in 2020

Total 2020 imports for pangasius frozen fillets totaled 127.9 million pounds, an 8.8 percent increase from the previous year, or 10.4 million pounds more. 2019 recorded the lowest volume year for imports since 2009 brought in 108.8 million pounds, while experiencing the largest volume just a few years ago in 2016 at 288.4 million pounds...

ANALYSIS: Aquaculture Review: Tilapia Strengthening amid Catfish and Pangasius Stagnation

In the current market, tilapia is under upwards pressure, while Chinese catfish and Vietnamese pangasius have remained mostly steady. With all markets experiencing similar logistical obstacles such as rising freight costs, limited to no container availability, and delays from inbound and outbound COVID-19 testing procedures, why is it that tilapia is the only market strengthening at the moment?

Throughout the pandemic the U.S. tilapia market faired extremely well. The country was well supplied with product prior to China shutting...

ANALYSIS: December Shrimp Imports Move Higher Again to Another Annual Record

December shrimp imports were released today and show a large increase (+8%) from last year to 146.242 million pounds. This was a reversal from last month’s marginally lower year-over-year figure and put total 2020 imports at 1.645 billion pounds. This again broke the one-year-old record by 6.3 percent. This is the sixth straight year of gains to record levels.

Urner Barry Consulting Economist Angel Rubio forecast 158.688 million pounds for this month.

All the top five trade partners shipped more product to...

ANALYSIS: Cooler Water Temperatures Lead to Slow Start for Mahi Season

The 2020-2021 mahi fishing season in Central and South America (C&SA) is ongoing, with almost four months of fishing completed. Early initial landings in Peru and Ecuador have been characterized as disappointing, as size and catch volume are both lacking.

It has been reported that there is a La Niña weather pattern occurring in C&SA, which cools the surface ocean waters along the west coast of South America. Due to the cooler water temperature, fishermen in...

ANALYSIS: Lobster Exports to China Continue Upward Trend; Total Exports Trail 2019 Levels

Year-to-date (January-November 2020) lobster exports to China, total 12.5 million pounds; a 130.4% increase year-over-year and are outpacing their 6-year average by 14.1%. Keep in mind that the live export market to China was derailed back in July 2018, when China placed heavy retaliatory tariffs on U.S. lobster imports. Up to that point, year-to-date (January-June 2018) exports totaled 11.7 million pounds, on track for a record-setting year...

ANALYSIS: King Crab Market Firm as Demand Outweighs Supply

A lack of supply and available replacement product from Russia continues to be the overall theme in the king crab market. Through November 2020, king crab imports are down 6.8 percent from Russia, the top producing country in the world.

The past two months of imports have fallen well below the 3-year average of monthly imports. In taking a closer look at the cyclical behavior of imports, both October and November are noticeably lower; down 34 and 49 percent respectively in comparison to the 3-year average...

ANALYSIS: China Bay Scallop Imports Continue Downwards Trend

It started with tariffs, followed by poor harvests, COVID-19, the U.S. dollar devaluation, skyrocketing freight costs, and recently a new outbreak in northern China creating additional setbacks, the market for China Bay scallops has seen better days here in the United States.

The average import volume from 2015 through 2018 was 21 million pounds, 2019 was the first year to see a major drop off of imports from China totaling less than 8 million pounds, while 2020 is anticipated to be...

ANALYSIS: November Shrimp Imports Ease Slightly From Last Year

November shrimp imports were released today and show a slight decline (-0.6%) from last year to 148.306 million pounds. This is the first time since June that there was a decline, although the pace was smaller than expected.

Urner Barry Consulting Economist Angel Rubio forecast 140.631 million pounds for this month.

Of the top five trade partners, India (-15.5%) and Thailand (-4.5%) sent less to the United States. This continued to be on trend from last month. Indonesia (+12.2%), Ecuador...

ANALYSIS: Farmed Salmon Market Continues to See Upward Pricing Pressure

The farmed salmon market continues to see upward pricing pressure

The farmed salmon market continues to see upward pricing pressure and significant price increases.

A lack of available supplies into the spot market, especially out of Chile, is causing quotations to rise. Many buyers report that supplies are falling short of their full needs. Active buyers are reported at retail, and their demand is helping to keep supplies in the spot market light.  

The market on 3-4-pound fresh...

ANALYSIS: Tilapia Imports Highest Since 2016

Total tilapia imports including fresh and frozen whole fish, and fresh and frozen fillets increased 5 percent collectively from the previous month, and 10.9 percent compared to October 2019. Year-to-date imports reign 16.4 percent above 2019, bringing in 367.8 million pounds of tilapia into the country, a volume not seen since 2016 brought in 369.2 million pounds for the same timeframe...

ANALYSIS: Live Lobster Market Unsettled as Canadian Fishing Season Begins

There has been much anticipation ahead of the opening of the Canadian lobster fishing seasons in LFA 33-34, the two largest producing zones. LFA 33 opened on time on November 30, however, LFA 34 has been delayed once again, looking at Saturday, December 5 as a drop date, weather permitting. A decision will be announced later shortly.  There is concern that each delay, coupled with the increasing pent-up demand for product and the late start may lead to...

ANALYSIS: COVID-19 Leads to Atypical Start to December for Norwegian Whole Salmon

The Norwegian whole salmon market has been on a volatile ride for all of 2020. From a historical standpoint, the month of December would mean a rise in pricing heading into the Christmas holiday season. Along with holiday parties and foodservice activity, smokers in Europe are typically active buyers leading up to the holidays. All these activities are of course almost non-existent due to lockdowns and mounting COVID restrictions. Currently, the 6-7 kg Norwegian whole salmon market is...

ANALYSIS: Pass the Salmon for Thanksgiving 2020

Sweet potatoes are not the only orange thing on the Thanksgiving table this year.

Retail features or buying opportunities for salmon look abnormal this year, up 75 percent from the previous week and up 61 percent from the same time last year. In total there are over 3,700 features across the U.S. this year.

The Chilean fillet market has been steadily firming over the past three weeks. Market participants report COVID-19 precautions in Chile, a focus on frozen production, and...

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ANALYSIS: Blue Swimming Crab Meat Market Remains Firm

The crab meat market continues to see firming prices on all grades, especially the larger ones. Upward pricing pressure remains due to ever increasing replacement costs.  

In Indonesia, the top supplier of blue swimming crab meat, holding over a 54 percent market share, market participants continue to report that competition for product remains high. Cost for raw material in this top producing country is reported to be rising. Inventories are thin as many importers let their supplies in the U.S. dwindle given the lack of demand at foodservice throughout the country...

ANALYSIS: Number of Salmon Promotions at Retail on Pace with 2019; Fresh Market Ends the Week Mixed 

As of this writing, the farmed salmon market out of Chile is seeing supplies adequate to even barely adequate. The market did see a $0.10 uptick on all sizes of fresh Atlantic Chilean salmon fillets at the back end of the week. Most market participants are reporting that current supplies were falling short of buyers’ needs.

Some reasoning behind the barely adequate supplies from some of the Chilean importers varies. A few market participants have mentioned that COVID cases are...

ANALYSIS: Crab Meat Prices Continue to Rise Amid Low Inventories

Crab meat like many other sectors in the premium shellfish category is seeing gains in pricing and many importers are experiencing a lack of inventory across many grades for blue swimming crab meat. Quotations have been firming significantly each week and all sizes of blue swimming crab meat are at 52-week highs.

Supply limitations in Asia due to COVID-19 and logistic constraints due to a lack of containers and shipping delays have helped create supply and inventory shortages across...

ANALYSIS: Bangladesh’s Black Tiger Shrimp Farmers Continue to Face Market Shortcomings

Despite adopting international management practices and virus-free seeds in recent years, Bangladeshi shrimp farmers, who primarily farm black tiger shrimp, continue to contend with market shortcomings.  

In addition to economic hurdles imposed by the unwavering pandemic, the domestic shrimp market has had to contend with disastrous weather conditions which has left some farmers unable to restock ponds.

On the back of untimely natural disasters, COVID-induced bottlenecks and subsequent global economic windfalls, exports of frozen shrimp fell by...

ANALYSIS: Spanish Octopus Prices on the Rise Despite Foodservice Fallout

While octopus is largely an out-of-home dining experience here in the U.S., the opposite is true for European and Asian consumers, so much so, that raw material prices for Spanish octopus strengthened throughout the pandemic while the U.S. market was largely frozen-in-place.

In looking at the latest imports through November 2020, year-to-date figures fall 39.2 percent below the previous 3-year average for the same timeframe. Importers were cautious in the amount of product they brought into the country after...

ANALYSIS: Tilapia Imports Highest in 3 Years, Prices Highest in 6 Years

Imports of frozen tilapia fillets took a dive into November, falling 31.7 percent for a total monthly volume of 14.3 million pounds. The previous 3-year average for the month of November is 22.8 million pounds, November 2020 falling well below average, down 37 percent.

On a year-to-date basis, however, January through November import volumes are 12.5 percent higher than the previous year, totaling 236.3 million pounds. This is the highest year-to-date total since...

ANALYSIS: Pangasius Imports Skyrocket 122 Percent

The pangasius market has slowly and steadily been rebuilding after a tumultuous few years stemming from a regulation shift in September of 2017 from the FDA to the USDA.

Since then, we saw record high wholesale and replacement prices, rising raw material and administrative costs, and lengthy delays due to new and in-depth inspection processes. In the wake of high prices in 2018, farming of the species increased and U.S. imports were strong. With higher volumes in inventory, and reports of consumption trailing...

ANALYSIS: As The World Turns for Farmed Salmon…  

Surpassing the $5.00 threshold in the Chilean fresh fillet market for 3-4 pound fillets and maintaining that price almost three weeks in a row was not something that many could have predicted heading into the 2020 holiday season. However, as we close out the second full week of January and are now into the middle of the month, the undertone in the fresh fillet market looks to be somewhat supportive of current pricing.

Presently fresh Chilean 3-4 pound fillets have...  

ANALYSIS: Scallop Imports Lead over LY during Pandemic

Year-to-date scallop imports for 2020 run through November, totaling 32.3 million pounds while the same 2019 timeframe reports 31.6 million pounds, a 2.3 percent or 714,359 pound difference. Despite showing a gain over 2019, the previous 5-year average for this eleven month timeframe far exceeds current year-to-date import volumes by 8 million pounds.

Scallop imports in 2019 were majorly affected by the tariffs on Chinese product. China is typically the leading supplier of scallops into the United States...

ANALYSIS: Haddock Market Strengthening amid Tariff Exemption Expiration

The haddock market has seen its fair share of tariff related events over the past two years. 

HTS code 0304.72.5000 refering to frozen haddock fillets, was originally listed on the $200 Billion Tariff Action (List 3) imposing a 10% tariff effective September 24, 2018. The increase to 25% was levied on May 10, 2019 after being postponed on January 1, 2019 and then again on March 2, 2019. The proposed increase to 30% originally planned for October 1, 2019 and delayed...

ANALYSIS: Mussel Prices Weaken, Imports Fall

Largely a foodservice item, the mussel market has seen its fair share of downwards pressure throughout 2020. Year-to-date January through October import volume shows a 14 percent decline from 2019 or trailing by 9 percent from the previous 5-year average of 63.9 million pounds for the January through October timeframe. The loss illustrated in 2018 is largely a result of an algal bloom affecting New Zealand mussel farm production that year...

UB Consulting: Multi-year Low Retail Ad Prices for Atlantic Salmon

Similar to most animal protein commodities, Atlantic salmon retail features have also recovered from the sudden drop from the initial stages of the pandemic. In addition, average retail feature ad price during the same period is at the lowest level since 2016. While this is no secret, it is always important to illustrate what has been collected anecdotally with hard data. Retail features for all Atlantic Salmon from week 19 to week 47, in addition to other insights are included in this report...

ANALYSIS: October Shrimp Imports Second Highest Ever (Again)

October shrimp imports were released today, and the trend of record and near-record imports remained. The reported figure of 173.204 million pounds surged past last month’s. This is the third consecutive month that either came in the top spot or the second spot with August records followed by September, now third, and this month now the second highest month on record. October 2020 was 5.6 percent above the same month last year.

Urner Barry Consulting Economist Angel Rubio expected this string of gains, forecasting...

ANALYSIS: Scallop Market Firms Amid Tightening Restrictions

The market for domestic caught Atlantic sea scallops is experiencing all-time record highs or 52-week highs depending on moisture content and size. During the week of Thanksgiving wholesale prices jumped as much as $1.00 on select size counts including all-natural, IQF, 10/20 count sized scallops currently averaging $15.00 per pound.

Factors contributing to the firming prices amid the current pandemic and newly emerging restrictions due to rising COVID-19 cases across the U.S. points to tighter supply...

ANALYSIS: Availability of Wild-Caught U.S. Shrimp Critically Low

Shrimp landings in the Gulf of Mexico have fallen to the lowest recorded level; at the current pace, the expectation is for only 69 million pounds landed. That is a 14 percent decline year-over-year and 33 percent fewer than the prior 10-year average. In addition, in September, the USDA initiated a purchase of frozen wild shrimp products for the Federal Food and Nutrition Assistance Program totaling 4.3 million pounds. So, in essence, only 65 million pounds will likely...

ANALYSIS: Opposing Pressure within the Tilapia Market

The market for tilapia frozen fillets from China has, for the most part, faired extremely well despite new obstacles to overcome in the uncharted territory of navigating through a pandemic this year. Largely due to its value and availability, retail sales skyrocketed as demand has remained moderate to active. As 2020 comes to a close however, there are a few factors putting opposing pressure on the market, creating some uncertainty looking ahead into 2021.

Upwards pressure on the market points to the swift rise of ocean freight...