Both fish farmers and processors are responding with increased freezing volumes.
“A bit noisy market, but I don’t hear anything under 50 kroner (€4.3) yet. 51, 52, 53 kroner (€4.4, 4.5, 4.6 for three to six kilos – ed. note),” says an exporter to SalmonBusiness.
“Sales prices should be below NOK 50 (€4.3), but there are still some who are staring at NOK 50-53 (€4.3-4.6). And then everyone is free to buy for the prices they want,” says another. [factbox]
“I think there is quite a few that freezes in. The price is going to go down – whether one wants to or not,” he says, referring to customers asking for increased credit time and credit insurance.
Particularly large fish, which are normally flown overseas to markets in the Far East and the US, are difficult to sell at decent prices in the current market.
“It’s being frozen a lot of fish,” says an importer. “What it is about now is to get volume. It’s almost more important than the price,” he says.
With falling prices, payment difficulties and rotten receivables also follow loyally.
“We do not receive money from Italy, Spain, France, England. People have enough of themselves. Credit limits are reduced. After all, the nervousness is great. How long will it last? We work a lot back to back now, day by day. We also have challenges, especially in big fish. There are so much 6+ (kg) out there in the market, and we have to find freezing space. And that’s where the capacity is stretched,” says one exporter.
“We freeze where we can in Norway. Where we can find freezers. Not many harvesting plants have freezing capacity,” he says, referring to prices of NOK 50 (€4.3) for the most traded weight classes, three to six kilos.
The big fish is cheaper and sells between NOK 40 and 44 (€3.4-3.8).
