The Fishery Problem from Hell: Right Whales and Gear Entanglement (The Winding Glass)

The right whale population is hovering at the brink of failure, with around 400 surviving individuals.  In some years, there has been some population increase, and in other years not.  But the fact is that unintentional killing of right whales through both ship strikes and gear entanglements is preventing the population from increasing to a safer level and exacerbating the risk the entire species will go extinct.

Although the population increased between 1990 and 2010, since then it has begun another decline...

ANALYSIS: Unsettled Headless Shell-on White Shrimp Market, Latin Origin in Graphs

Recent weakness in 16-20 and 21-25 count headless shell-on shrimp from Latin America may have come as a surprise to many market watchers. However, a quick look at import volume and price should help participants understand why the market has become somewhat unsettled. While demand is still seen supportive overall, there are sellers that have product readily available...

ANALYSIS: Unsettled Scallop Market

Heading into the fourth month of the 2019 Atlantic sea scallop season, the current market is quite unsettled. U10 landings are still abundant, however slightly less than the volumes we were seeing a few weeks ago. Of this volume, there is a very limited amount of A+ quality, with the majority of the product falling below that. 

With a healthy supply of product, producers are able to act more competitively, offering enticing discounts in an effort to gain a larger share of the market. However, those that hold the limited higher quality product are...

ANALYSIS: Farm Raised, Asian, Raw P&D, Tail-On, White 16-20 Shrimp Changes Longer Term Weakness

The shrimp market has been in almost continuous free-fall since October 2017; especially value-added shrimp products. Now, roughly halfway through 2019, a look at a price chart on Farm Raised, Asian, Raw P&D, Tail-On, White 16-20 shrimp is like looking in the mirror and things look back at you in opposite fashion. Around May 20 prices crossed last year's levels. Over the first 24 weeks last year, prices...

ANALYSIS: April Lobster Imports Sharply Lower -  Seventh Straight Month of Lower Shipments

The flow of lobster products into the U.S. continues to decline. The April loss extends the trend of year-over-year declines to seven-straight months. April 2019 imports of 4.413 million pounds were 18.6 percent lower when compared last year’s figure of 5.423 million pounds. Year-to-date figures show a 21.1 percent or 6.339-million-pound shortfall.

Imports from Canada are down 25.6 percent in the month and 24.3 percent through four months.  The ongoing trade war with China...

ANALYSIS: Weakness Continues in the Blue Swimming Crab Meat Market

The blue swimming crab meat market continues to look barely steady to weak.

The market looks to continue to weaken, as it has since the middle of last July. Since the summer, the blue swimming crab meat market steadily declined throughout the back half of 2018 and it continues to adjust lower for these first two months in 2019. On jumbo lump blue swimming crab meat, for example, there has been a 5.2 percent drop since the beginning of the...

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: Strong Canadian Lobster Landings

Strong Canadian landings coupled with the seasonal lull in demand has put downward pressure on live lobster prices.  The current average market price for 2lb hard shell lobster FOB New England is $8.05, down 8% compared to this time last year.  The lower price adjustments have been closely following the seasonal pattern; however, for the month of June prices have stalled while the historical chart indicates an upward trend.

Market prices peaked mid- February and adjusted lower as the Canadian spring fishing seasons commenced...

ANALYSIS: Venezuela Crab Meat Imports into U.S. Drop Dramatically

Venezuela’s market share has grown in 2019. Through April, Venezuela owns a 14.6 percent market share; a rise from their 9.97 percent market share last year at the same time. Year-to-date figures are up 49.1 percent and currently 2.5 million pounds have been imported into the U.S. market this year. Venezuela is the second highest importing country to Indonesia, who is the far and away leader in the category.

However, with the country’s current political climate, imports into the...

ANALYSIS: April Pangasius Imports Lowest Since 2007

Imports of pangasius frozen fillets totaled 5.6 million pounds for the month of April. Volumes fell 44.4 percent from the previous month and 56.6 percent from April 2018 when imports totaled 12.9 million pounds. This is the lowest recorded month of imports since February 2009 brought in 5.3 million pounds, and the lowest April on record since 2007 recorded 3.3 million pounds of product.

Pangasius imports have fallen month-over-month since January. When looking at the previous 3-year average for the month of April, April 2019 falls 66.1 percent below...  

ANALYSIS: Chinese Tariff's Impact on Red Swimming Crab Meat Market

The Chinese tariff increase of 10 - 25% is an issue at the forefront for the red swimming crab meat market. China, the largest supplier of red swimming crab meat, saw record breaking imports at the end of 2018, just as the 10% tariff was being implemented and the threat for the January 1, 2019 tariff increase of 25% was baited. With much of the production front-loaded in the beginning of the 2018-2019 season, imports in 2019 have fallen off dramatically. Now, with the administration’s sudden implementation of...

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: 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 ...