New record for Russian exports of live crab to China

Despite COVID-19 constraints, the supply of Russian-caught live crab to the Chinese market in December 2020 showed a very serious increase, even compared to 2019, when the supply level was already quite high, reports Megafishnet.com.

According to Japanese seafood media, the December deliveries were carried out with a large price increase. Combined with a strong rise in volume, the higher prices have further encouraged the Russian crab companies to work on the Chinese market.

The Russian volumes in December increased by 37-42% compared to October and November, reaching almost 2.65 thousand tons.  This is 15% more than the annual volume in 2016 and almost 95% more than in 2015, when the Chinese imports of live crab from Russia began to rapidly increase.

The average import price (CIF) in November already rose by 9%, reaching almost US$29.40/kg.  In December it went up again by almost 8% to reach about US$31.70/kg (23% more than in December 2019).

This is, however, not the highest figure in the history of Russian supplies of live crab to China. In April 2019, the average import price was already recorded at US$33.00/kg,

The total value in December 2020 jumped threefold to US$83.82 million versus December 2019.

IMPORT OF Live, fresh, chilled CRAB TO CHINA IN 2019-2020

Note: 1 - the average import price CIF; 2 – in the "only" data for the entire period from the beginning of the year; 3 – in the "Total" column data based on supply from other sources; 4 – according to the customs administration of China.

The annual volume of Russian supplies to China in 2020 increased by almost 15.5% and reached 14.48 thousand tons, actually equaling the volume shipped to South Korean ports.

The price level rose by more than 14.5% and reached about US$28.40 / kg, which is 70-75% higher than the price level before 2018, when the supply was dominated by the snow crab.

The value of imports under these conditions increased by more than 32% to US$411.0 million, which is at least US$100 million more than the value of imports in 2019 (and 10% more than the value of imports to South Korea in 2020, which reached about US$373.5 million).

But even with such an increase in the Russian supplies, the total volume of Chinese imports of live, fresh and chilled crab decreased by 7%, to less than 50.9 thousand tons.

At the same time, the Norwegian supplies, mainly represented by red king crab from the Barents Sea, remained at only 0.13 thousand tons, and prices rose by 15% reaching the level of US$38.50/kg.

Prices for Canadian shipments decreased by an average of 8.5% and fell below US $ 16.85 / kg, while prices for American shipments, which were also mainly represented by Dungeness crab, rose by 12% and reached US$17.65/kg.

At the same time, the volume of supplies from Canada also fell by 13%, to less than 5.15 thousand tons, and American supplies generally fell by 16% and were limited to only about 2.60 thousand tons.