Close to €4/kg again.
“The starting point was around NOK 40 (€4), but that is two to four kroner down,” says an Eastern European buyer to SalmonBusiness. “But it’s early. I haven’t bought anything yet,” he adds quickly.
In addition to high harvest volumes, in Norway and Scotland, the focus in the salmon market is the growing freezing stock.[factbox]
“We don’t have much stock, but that’s because we have some delays in deliveries from Chile. I hear there is a lot in stock in Norway.”
Others believe the salmon market is approaching the price bottom
“A lot of extraordinary slaughter because of lice and maximal allowed biomass, so I think now the bottom is reached and prices will tend upwards next week. I’m a little worried about so much low-weight fish being taken out in terms of volume and winter prices,” says one trader.
“The average price creeps under NOK 40 (€4) for the first time. Four euros is the offer you get from customers. Then you have to buy NOK 36, 38 and 40 from the fish farmer if you want the money back,” one exporter says.
“There are fish everywhere. It’s chaos. The problem is that customers are freezing. And then they say that their freezer stores are getting full – they have no more to go on,” he says, referring especially to freezers in Poland, Lithuania and Norway.
“The customers have fish in stock right up to Easter. We are at the mercy of our customers,” he says.
The last two weeks, according to the Norwegian Seafood Council, have shown average export volumes of more than 30,000 tonnes (converted to round weight) from Norway. These are volumes normally associated with Christmas shopping.
“All of the 30,000 tonnes will not be eaten. We do not eat more salmon this year than last year. But we build an inventory, and that worries me. Now the customers are in control,” says the exporter.
SalmonBusiness’ five industry sources refer to the following farm gate prices for salmon to be delivered this week:
- 3-4 kg NOK 36-37 (€3.6-3.7)
- 4-5 kg NOK 38-39 (€3.8-3.9)
- 5-6 kg NOK 40-41 (€4.0-4.1)
