The salmon price has suffered a setback at the turn of October/November every year since 2016. It also happens this year.
“It’s down from last week. But it has stabilized – there were lower levels earlier today. 54, 55 and 56 kroner (EUR 5.5-5.7) are what we have sold in the last hour,“ said a fish farmer. “The Poles buy in at a couple of kroner below this. We, however, have not sold to Poland.“ [factbox]
“We see higher prices in Western Europe. That is the big difference, on several kroner. It’s Poland against the rest.“
Poland is Europe’s largest salmon buyer and a major power in processing.
Drive
However, he did not think the price decline will be particularly long-lasting.
“With the currency we have now, we will enter the 60s in a couple of weeks. It is obviously a completely different activity towards Christmas. A completely different drive in the market.“
Market participants agreed on the fall in prices.
“The prices are falling. I hear low 50s. Especially the big fish. So there is a change happening,“ said an importer.
“There is a lot of harvesting in the north. There is a lot more fish from all places really. It is MAB (increased harvesting at the end of the month due to maximal allowed biomass – ed. note), you know,“ he said, and mentioned the high feed sales along the Norwegian coast.
Loss
He received support from several different exporters.
“It’s down towards 50 kroner (EUR 5.1). It has been sold at a loss of five kroner all week, for most exporters. Large quantity. It has been an incredibly difficult week. A little too much capacity, and covid problems in some factories. Some fillet factories in Europe run lower capacity. They do not have enough people. And then it piles up with fish,“ one of them reasoned.
“It does not have much to do with the price, it is a capacity problem. And then the price falls,“ he said and referred to the following prices: “51 kroner (EUR 5.2) for 3-4 kg, 52 kroner (EUR 5.3) for 4-5 and 53 kroner (EUR 5.4) for 5+. No premium for 6+ anymore. We have been selling it at 4+ price all week. There are a lot of big fish.“
“This came as a bit of a surprise, we are born optimists,“ he chuckled.
“It falls 2-3 kroner (EUR 0.2-0.3),“ said another exporter. “The volume goes down and the price goes down. They may have built up frozen inventories in Europe. I do not know,“ he said.
