Prices of South Korean imports of live snow crab on a rise

There was still no significant acceleration in shipments of live snow crab to the South Korean market in October while in the recent months Russia has remained nearly the only source of live snow crab for the country, reports Megafishnet.com.

According to Japanese seafood media, the import volume turned out to be noticeably lower than in October 2019, when shipments accelerated sharply. On the other hand, due to a rather limited volume of supplies, prices grew stronger and reached their highest level since March, at the same time seriously exceeding last year's.

The Russian supplies, which during the last months were practically the only source of live snow crab on the South Korean market, increased in October compared to September by only 5.5% and again were limited to less than 500 tonnes. Moreover, in September they were almost 30% higher than in 2019, and in October they decreased by 10.5% compared to last year. The average import price (CIF) rose by more than 15% compared to September and reached about USD 23.25 per kg, which was the highest level since March, when prices reached almost USD 23.90 per kg on the average.

Against the background of a serious decline of supplies, import prices, which in August and September were already almost 20% higher than last year, in October exceeded the 2019 figure by 18%. By the beginning of November, this had not yet made it possible to fully compensate for the price drawdown that was observed in April-July, but the average import price for January-October has already reached almost USD 19.50 per kg, and the price difference narrowed to only USD 0.75 per kg, or less than 4%.

However, a slight decrease in prices did not lead to lower value of imports. It was already at a fairly high level by the beginning of November last year, exceeding USD 120 million, and this year it increased by more than 13% and approached USD 137 million, so the prospects for the value totalling USD 150 million and more by the end of the year no longer raise any doubts. The growth in value against declining prices could be attributed to an increase in the volume of supplies by more than 17.5%, reaching the level of 7.0 thousand tons more than a month earlier than last year.

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