Moscow's freshfrozen fish market swinging between gluts and shortages

As per the fourth week of May 2009 trade in freshfrozen seafood in Moscow has shown mixed price trends, analysts of www.fishnet-russia.com (www.fishnet.ru) concluded after analyzing the current situation on the market.

As one of the most important events of the week, the Government of Russia has published a draft order "On introducing amendments to the Customs Tariff of the Russian Federation with respect to capelin". The draft provides for singling out capelin into a one-off commodity article in the HSC (Harmonized System Code) towards further introduction of protective duty for importation of capelin products. That means that Norwegian capelin, 50,000 tonnes of which Russia has already imported this year, would be liable to extra duty thus increasing the product price. Now capelin of the Russian harvest can hardly compete with the Norwegian capelin due to its higher production price caused by a number of factors such as the lack of modern fleet, fishing gear, etc. Probably these measures may lead to a rise of capelin prices on the Russian market.

In the course of the fourth week of May 2009 the US dollar has continued actively depreciating on the Russian ruble. More specifically, through the week under analysis it went down nearly by RUR1.00 from RUR31.95 to RUR31.05, while from 25 April to 25 May 2009 the USD has decreased by almost RUR2.50. The development cannot but make the Russian importers happy, as they can now buy fish at decreased USD prices with the RUR prices remaining either stable or rising.

According to foreign sources, the average rise of prices for imported squid on the world market in the first quarter of the year amounted to 20%. Against the background of the lack of products on the world market the prices for the Russian squid are more or less stable at present due to weak demand in summer.

Norwegian sources say that despite the economic crisis the salmon export to Eastern Europe has been rising. The Norwegian export to Russia amounts to 82% from the nation's export to the region and the market has been showing positive trends. In volume terms, the rise in April 2009 amounted to 19% to 5475 tonnes. Trout export to Russia amounted to 51% of the total export volume. In April 2009 the growth of export volume amounted to 4% as compared to the same month of 2008.

In general, as per the fourth week of May 2009 the market has been showing mixed price trends for finfish and other than non-finfish products. In particular, the market has continued showing a strong demand for whitefish. The pollock prices have slightly decreased, though, just like the market participants have forecasted before, a large fall of prices has not been observed. The market of imported Atlantic salmon and trout has been showing uncertainty caused by a substantial rise of prices. The market participants have been reporting a weak demand for the Russian capelin and large coldstore inventories of the products in the regions. Besides, the reports have come about a gradual rise of prices for blue whiting. There has also been a weak demand for squid due to the off-season. The market of Pacific salmons has been showing a strong shortage of the supply, while the situation with the sales of salmon caviar has been extremely difficult.