News - MARKET

While imports of the Russian live king crab into South Korea in November 2020 slowed down year-on-year the prices displayed a serious rise presumably to persist into December thus exceeding the level of the previous two years. At the same time, the total Russian live crab exports to Korea since the start of the year were recorded at more than 13 thousand metric tons, reports Megafishnet.com.

The Russian live crab exports to China may be hitting nearly US$400 million by the end of 2020 as the sales in November significantly exceeded expectations. The activity of imports of Russian and American products has increased especially strongly. Combined with a substantial price rise this fact further convinces market players of the healthy and promising nature of demand, reports Megafishnet.com.

Russia’s Federal Fishery Agency has conducted a video conference on the sale and export of Russian fish products from pollock A season in the Russian Far East in connection with restrictive measures introduced by the People's Republic of China to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Apart from ways to comply with the Chinese requirements, the conference has worked out measures to diversify shipments geographically and in terms of processing destinations, reports Megafishnet.com.

The Chinese border authorities have sent a notice to their Russian counterparts about the closure of the border (including the land border) for holidays, reports Megafishnet.com.

Russia’s vet watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor and the General Customs Administration (GCA) of the People's Republic of China have held a video conference on the export of Russian animal products to China in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Russia’s "National Center for the Safety of Aquatic Fisheries and Aquaculture Products" in charge of export approvals also took part, reports Megafishnet.com.

Murmansk fishermen exporting part of their catch to China via Europe are facing a potential bottleneck for their shipments due to stricter Chinese requirements in response to COVID-19 occurrence on packed frozen fish, reports Megafishnet.com.

A number of Turkish fish producers are already selling to Russia with more waiting for approval by the country’s vet watchdog Rossekhoznadzor. However, the progress is hampered by food safety concerns expressed by the Russian vets, reports Megafishnet.com.

Russia’s vet watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor has held negotiations with the Mexican colleagues on the issue of mutual access for livestock products to the markets of the both countries, reports Megafishnet.com.

Egypt has given green light to Russian fish and seafood exports into the country, reports Megafishnet.com.

December 22 early morning was a shock for fish processing stakeholders in the city of Dalian, China.  The local government ordered to shut down 75 fish processing factories in Zhuanghe area and frozen cargo operations in ports.  Actually, the "new" port of Dayowan and two cold storages there were closed from December 15, reports Megafishnet.com.

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.

As per early December 2020 the wholesale salmon and trout market is under the influence of a number of factors that slow down the sales dynamics, reports Megafishnet.com.

As per the second week of December 2020 the wholesale trade in frozen seafood was still behind the usual end-of-year acceleration, though the demand for imported species was generally active in Russia’s main entry port for imported products, reports Megafishnet.com.

On December 4, Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) and General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China held a videoconference to discuss Chinese COVID-linked regulations for import of seafood into PRC, reports Megafishnet.com.

The seafood market situation in the Russian Far East has been overshadowed by COVID-related import constraints on the Chinese market and domestic demand slowdown with the exception of fish products in short supply, reports Megafishnet.com.

In early December, auction sales of "autumn" pollock roe of US origin started in Busan, reports Megafishnet.com.

Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries has published Rosstat’s provisional figures for seafood imports in January – October 2020, according to Megafishnet.com.

Rosstat’s provisional figures for the Russian seafood exports to October 2020 show different trends for value and volume, according to Megafishnet.com.

China has futher tightened regulations for exporters of seafood to PRC under the excuse of preventing COVID-19 from infiltrating into the country, reports Megafishnet.com.

Situation with the export of seafood to China from the Russian Far East has become more complicated because of COVID-19, reports Megafishnet.com.

Seafood exports from the Russian Far East (RFE) need greater diversity in terms of destination countries to make the sector less sensitive to demand fluctuations. The destinations structure was analysed, among other indicators, as ordered by the Ministry of Development of the Far East, in the research paper "Parameters of foreign trade turnover of fish products in the Far Eastern Federal district: volume, structure and value of exports", reports Megafishnet.com.

FISHNET visited Lenta hypermarket in Saint Petersburg and prepared a photo report on chilled and frozen seafood and salmon caviar on offer for the coming holiday season.

Analysts of Vostokgosplan have compared the regions of the Russian Far East as to the efficiency of their seafood exports in 2019 in terms of volume, value and price. The conclusions were made public by the Ministry of Development of the Far East based on the research paper "Parameters of foreign trade turnover of fish products in the Far Eastern Federal district: volume, structure and value of exports", reports Megafishnet.com.

The third quarter of 2020 has ended with mixed results for the Russian fish and shellfish importation sector, reports Megafishnet.com..

Following the sales of frozen pink salmon roe, in late October sales of Russian-made frozen chum salmon roe were held for the Japanese market.

The new season of red king crab fishery in Bristol Bay in Western Alaska was opened, as usual, on October 15, but even before the start of the season, the basic conditions for sales of the new catch for the Japanese market were determined.

Other fresh products which stopped being imported in the EU in March are fresh hake from Namibia and Chile, common sole from Iceland, fresh scallops from the USA, fresh clams from Tunisia, fresh blue mussels from Norway and fresh Nile perch fillets from Uganda. 

Online sales and home delivery of seafood products have increased rapidly during lockdown. Although from low volumes, e-commerce sales of fresh produce have increased by 25% and online takeaway deliveries have doubled, according to Rabobank analysts.

The Easter period drove up demand and prices in Italy. In week 15, prices were up in Rome wholesale market compared to week 14, especially for clam and bigger gilthead seabream but down for Tyrrhenian anchovy.

In week 15, available first-sales data for a handful of EU Member States shows increase in first-sales prices for several groundfish and flatfish species.