Moscow's freshfrozen fish market resuming business in the second week of January 2009
After the long break for the New Year holidays ending on 11 January in Russia the seafood traders have resumed their activities, analysts of http://www.fishnet-russia.com/ (https://www.fishnet.ru/) concluded after analyzing the current situation on the market.
As per the second week of the January 2009 the majority of the seafood companies resumed their work on the market.
Among the main novelties of the year 2009 one must name the enforcement of new procedure for mandatory customs clearance of the EEZ's catch in the Russian ports, suspension of the ban of the Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Rosselkhoznadzor to import seafood products from non-approved processing plants from the USA, China, India, Morocco, Indonesia, Mauritania till 1, July, 2009 and the beginning of the Russian pollock fishing season in the Sea of Okhotsk.
On the whole, the emerging tendencies on the Moscow seafood market were unclear during the period under review. The traders started the working process. The importers spoke about the increase of the customs indicatives for some fish species. In particular, the entry price of HGT hake increased from USD1.7 to 2.02 per kilo. The Customs have also increased the indicative price of the butterfish fillets.
Some importers say that the increased demand for tilapia fillet has resulted in growing prices. This is said to be connected with the reduction of the tilapia inventories in Russia and with poor prospects for further supplies of the products. Many Chinese producers will be celebrating Chinese New Year holidays and the new supplies of tilapia are expected only in the mid/late February 2009.
Besides, many Russian importers are still waiting for permits to import from the Chinese plants in 2009 yet. It means as per the 2nd week of January they were not allowed to import products under new permits. Meanwhile, the seafood products in question have been brought to Russia under the 2008 veterinary permits.
The same situation though even more complicated was observed with pangasius from Vietnam as the import from this country was banned.
As per the 2nd week of January the situation in Moscow was marked by seasonal growth of demand for fish species intended for smoking. Meanwhile, the demand for table fish species for human consumption was stable as well as the prices.
In particular, there were large volumes of hake imported from various countries into the Russian Federation. The prices of this product were stable.
In general, the importers noted cautious behavior of traders on the Russian market due to the unstable situation with the currency exchange rates. In this situation, companies have not been making long-term plans while scrutinizing the current offers very closely and carefully.
Taking into account the offers of main players, one can observe a decrease of prices of Norwegian salmon, whole pink salmon and head-on, gutted chum salmon. The prices of mackerel, herring, Baltic sprat, pangasius and trout have increased.