High slaughter activity in a market where the salmon price goes sideways.
“It was down yesterday, and then there is talk of a little up today. To the extent that there is movement, it is a plus. Maybe that says it all. At least not down,” says an exporter to SalmonBusiness.
“NOK 63-64-65 (EUR 6.1-6.3),” he says about the prices for the most traded weight classes.[factbox]
He foresees a tight market in the coming weeks.
Curious
“In any case, there will not be any large increase in harvesting going forward. I think most farmers slaughter quite a bit because of lice and so on. I am curious whether some fish will be taken away from processing,” he adds.
“There are a lot of fish. 2-5 kg are pressured on price, because there are a lot of small fish. 5+ holds up well in terms of price,” says another exporter.
He sees the following farmgate prices:
- NOK 52 (EUR 5.1) for 2-3 kg
- NOK 60-61 (EUR 5.9-6.0) for 3-4 kg
- NOK 62-63 (6.1-6.2) for 4-5 kg
- NOK 65 (EUR 6.4) for 5-6 kg
- NOK 72 (EUR 7) 6+ kg
“There is not much movement. Maybe a little down on 2-3 and 3-4, maybe a krone,” he says.
“Our biggest problem now is credit insurance. We have to reduce the volume because we don’t have insurance. There are economic downturns, we must not forget that.”
Struggling
“There is also a lot of goods in stock. End customers look at the prices outside in the shops. That’s what our customers say – they struggle to get their money back.”
Several other exporters and fish farmers confirm stable prices towards next week. But one fish farmer, however, reports an uptick:
“There is nothing that says it will go down. We don’t have much to sell next week. We have sold, and then we stay away from [low price market] Poland, at NOK 65, 68 and 71 (EUR 6.3, 6.6 and 6.9). So I would say there is an upswing. Poland is probably NOK 3-4 below that.”
