Not much fish has been traded so far today, and the gap between buyer and seller is wide. But the price is falling back.
Last Friday, farmgate salmon was sold well over EUR 6/kg. You do not get that today.
“58 kroner (EUR 5.7), I would say. I think it ends there,” said an exporter to SalmonBusiness.
That means a clear decline.[factbox]
Artificial
“It was artificial, we have to be honest to say it. The underlying market is not strong. It should not come as a surprise. They were a bit special those two weeks, many were going to have a campaign towards Easter,” said a trader.
“You do not get more than EUR 5.9-6.0 in the market. The problem is that many processing companies have made agreements with the big [supermarket] chains at low sales prices. They do not get those prices back. I think it’s healthy for all parties.”
“There have been far more big fish than the market has handled in a good way. Large average weights are likely to head towards Taiwan, which buys a lot of big fish, and which has now stopped,” he said, referring to prices between NOK 58 and 59 (EUR 5.7-5.8).
Challenging
“It’s challenging. You have a price that goes up 20-25 kroner in two weeks, and then it goes down ten kroner (EUR 1), or whatever it may be. It is a rather challenging sales job to deal with this,” he pointed out.
Fish farmers, especially in southern Norway, wants higher prices.
“I want over 60 kroner (EUR 5.9). There were high expectations when we went into this week,” said a fish farmer. “I want 62-64 kroner (EUR 6.1-6.3), you can write that. Little has been traded. I think it will be a slow shopping day.”
“The price is 62 kroner (EUR 6.1), and it will mutate further upwards and will be vaccinated during the Easter week”, wrote a salmon famer in a text message to SalmonBusiness.
