Russian live king crab shipments to South Korea in January 2021 saw marked increase
Deliveries of live Russian-caught king crab to South Korea at the beginning of 2021, in contrast to the supply of live snow crab, were noticeably more active than last year, and the price level was significantly higher than in January 2020. The Norwegian deliveries displayed an even more serious growth and also at much higher prices. Meanwhile, the supply of cheap Chinese products, mainly swimming crab, significantly decreased, but also with strongly higher prices, reports Megafishnet.com.
According to Korea Customs, in January, the total volume of imports to South Korea under the “Live, fresh, chilled” (LFC) crab code decreased by 2.5% compared to 2020, amounting to slightly less than 1.20 thousand tons. But this decline was mainly due to the fact that imports from China fell by 11% and fell below the level of 0.6 thousand tons. At the same time, imports of Russian products, mainly blue king crab, increased by 4% and reached more than 0.51 thousand tons. Meanwhile the Norwegian supplies, represented by the Barents Sea red king crab, generally increased by 30%, to 0.1 thousand tons.
Import of “Live, fresh, chilled” (LFC) crab to South Korea in 2020-2021
|
|
Russia |
Russia |
Norway |
China |
||||
|
MT |
US$/kg |
MT |
US$/kg |
MT |
US$/kg |
MT |
US$/kg |
|
|
2020 |
||||||||
|
July |
904 |
17.88 |
560 |
32.84 |
91 |
40.65 |
0 |
- |
|
August |
854 |
20.90 |
46 |
37.82 |
159 |
39.03 |
3 |
3.01 |
|
September |
473 |
20.14 |
478 |
27.11 |
28 |
37.63 |
37 |
3.98 |
|
October |
499 |
23.23 |
823 |
36.14 |
38 |
38.93 |
333 |
2.80 |
|
November |
677 |
24.97 |
479 |
34.54 |
28 |
38.60 |
650 |
2.86 |
|
December |
682 |
25.04 |
628 |
35.70 |
32 |
38.43 |
726 |
3.01 |
|
Total |
8386 |
20.38 |
6082 |
33.31 |
622 |
39.05 |
5036 |
2.35 |
|
2021 |
||||||||
|
January |
476 |
34.69 |
514 |
42.37 |
100 |
41.92 |
581 |
3.12 |
|
Note. 1 - average import prices on CIF terms; 2 - according to the Customs Administration of the Republic of Korea. |
||||||||
In terms of price, the situation clearly developed with a big plus for Russian, Norwegian and Chinese producers and suppliers. The average import price (CIF) from Russia increased by 5.5% compared to January 2020 and reached more than US $ 42.35 / kg. Import prices of Norwegian products rose by 9% and approached US$42.00/kg, while import prices from China jumped by 67% to more than US$3.10/kg.
At the same time, last year, prices for Chinese supplies fell by an average of 5.5% going down to just US $ 2.35 / kg along with an increase in volume of at least 16% to 5.0 thousand tons or more.
The prices of imports of Norwegian products rose by less than 0.5%, averaging US$39.05/kg for the year, while the prices of imports of Russian products rose by only about 1.5%, averaging US$33.30/kg. At the same time, the volume of Russian supplies decreased by 9%, but remained at the level of 6.0 thousand tons or more, while supplies from Norway, despite an increase of 14%, were limited to the level of 0.6 thousand tons. However, the growth trend is only increasing, so by the end of 2021, imports of Norwegian products may well reach the level of 1.0 thousand tons or more.
For copyright please contact Vera Aldokhina at vera@megafishnet.com.