Overview of frozen fish market in Saint Petersburg and some other regions in mid-February 2007

Unlike last year when the Epiphany frosts from 15 January to 14 February seized the Gulf of Finland with strong ice, in the first half of February current comparably warm weather conditions have had no impact on prices on the freshfrozen fish market of St. Petersburg, Russia's main entry port for seafood, trading sources told RFR.

Below follow more details on particular species with average prices given as ex-coldstore VAT inclusive for quantities of between 1-10 metric tons unless specified otherwise.

Freshfrozen herring

Large inventories of herring in Norway and the timely start of its fishery since the very beginning of January have encouraged stabilization on the market.

As per 14 February 2007, the herring prices settled at RUR25.50-27.00 per kilo of the size 300+, RUR32.00-34.00 for the size 350+ and RUR43.00-44.00 for the size 400+.

In January the Russian fleet stepped up fishery operations on the herring grounds and in February Saint-Petersburg traders were expecting small herring 200-300 from the new harvest at prices of less than RUR20.00 per kilo.

Mackerel

In the middle of February 2007 the mackerel fishery was on the wane both in Norway and Scotland, though old inventories in Russia did not let the prices for the size 400-600 increase. The wholesalers have been offering the product from RUR62-65 per kilo depending on the lot.

Larger mackerel 600+ was marketed from RUR100.00 per kilo ex-coldstore.

Baltic herring, Baltic sprat

Estonian and Latvian fish was available from RUR18.00 per kilo on the market of Saint Petersburg.

The prices for Baltic herring/sprat depend on the fuel and transportation costs and therefore they will hardly fall as the cost of transportation from the Baltic States to Finland has increased by 300-400 Euro per 20-tonne lot. As per 14 February, the Finnish herring was offered from RUR18.00 per kilo of the size 12-15 and from 22.00 per kilo of the size 15-17.

Pink salmon

Prices stabilized at RUR60.00-62.00 per kilo of silverside pink salmon.

Blue whiting

The weather conditions on the grounds were favourable for the fishery and prices were forecasted to go down from RUR25.00 as per 14 February to RUR15.00 per kilo in the weeks to come.

Capelin

In the first half of February 2007 Icelandic capelin harvested in January 2007 was marketed from RUR27.00 to RUR30.50 per kilo in Saint Petersburg depending on the count which fluctuated from 45/55 to 40/50 per kilo. As the capelin fishery in 2007 just like in 2006 is conducted only in Iceland, the market supply of the species is expected to be small and the prices are not supposed to fall.

Larger capelin of the 30/40 count was not offered due to its poor occurrence in the catches.

Atlantic salmon and trout

The situation on the Atlantic salmon and trout market was not stable due to mounting offers of Danish and Faeroese fish at considerably lower prices than the Norwegian salmon. As a result, prices went gradually down.

Atlantic salmon 5-6 was offered from RUR175-180 per kilo, while trout 2.7-3.6 was marketed from RUR185.00 per kilo.

Wholesale prices ex-coldstore in Vladivostok, dateline 14 February 2007

Wholesale prices ex-coldstore in Saint Petersburg, dateline 14 February 2007

Wholesale prices ex-coldstore in Moscow, dateline 14 February 2007

Wholesale prices ex-coldstore in Murmansk, dateline 12 February 2007

Note: The last table has been compiled by FISHNET specialists from internet offers of Murmansk traders, while the other preceding tables were contributed by Saint-Petersburg trading sources.