ANALYSIS: Seafood Items Swimming Upstream in October

October, as many say in the industry, is called National Seafood month for a reason, demand is quiet. School is in session and the U.S.’s appetite for seafood tends to wane during the Fall.

There are several seafood items, however, that are swimming upstream this fall. Each species has its own story to tell, but the theme circles around a lack of supply coupled with what appears to be an insatiable demand.

King and Snow Crab

Both king and snow crab demand has been active over the past several weeks...

ANALYSIS: Shrimp Imports Climb Again in June

June imports were released today and the trend of monthly year-over-year growth remained intact. Shipments to the U.S. in June were 6.6 percent higher than June 2018. This has narrowed the total imports year-to-date to near parity with the first half of last year. Shipments currently lag last year by only 0.6 percent.

The top four countries, India (+16.1%), Indonesia (+5.6%), Ecuador (+31.3%), and Vietnam (+10.0%), along with Mexico (+135.4%) all showed gains and overpowered any lower imports by other trade partners...

ANALYSIS: Unsettled Headless Shell-on White Shrimp Market, Latin Origin in Graphs

Recent weakness in 16-20 and 21-25 count headless shell-on shrimp from Latin America may have come as a surprise to many market watchers. However, a quick look at import volume and price should help participants understand why the market has become somewhat unsettled. While demand is still seen supportive overall, there are sellers that have product readily available...

ANALYSIS: Unsettled Scallop Market

Heading into the fourth month of the 2019 Atlantic sea scallop season, the current market is quite unsettled. U10 landings are still abundant, however slightly less than the volumes we were seeing a few weeks ago. Of this volume, there is a very limited amount of A+ quality, with the majority of the product falling below that. 

With a healthy supply of product, producers are able to act more competitively, offering enticing discounts in an effort to gain a larger share of the market. However, those that hold the limited higher quality product are...

ANALYSIS: Farm Raised, Asian, Raw P&D, Tail-On, White 16-20 Shrimp Changes Longer Term Weakness

The shrimp market has been in almost continuous free-fall since October 2017; especially value-added shrimp products. Now, roughly halfway through 2019, a look at a price chart on Farm Raised, Asian, Raw P&D, Tail-On, White 16-20 shrimp is like looking in the mirror and things look back at you in opposite fashion. Around May 20 prices crossed last year's levels. Over the first 24 weeks last year, prices...

ANALYSIS: April Lobster Imports Sharply Lower -  Seventh Straight Month of Lower Shipments

The flow of lobster products into the U.S. continues to decline. The April loss extends the trend of year-over-year declines to seven-straight months. April 2019 imports of 4.413 million pounds were 18.6 percent lower when compared last year’s figure of 5.423 million pounds. Year-to-date figures show a 21.1 percent or 6.339-million-pound shortfall.

Imports from Canada are down 25.6 percent in the month and 24.3 percent through four months.  The ongoing trade war with China...

ANALYSIS: Weakness Continues in the Blue Swimming Crab Meat Market

The blue swimming crab meat market continues to look barely steady to weak.

The market looks to continue to weaken, as it has since the middle of last July. Since the summer, the blue swimming crab meat market steadily declined throughout the back half of 2018 and it continues to adjust lower for these first two months in 2019. On jumbo lump blue swimming crab meat, for example, there has been a 5.2 percent drop since the beginning of the...

ANALYSIS: Japanese Exports Affecting Canadian Scallops; U.S. Market Unsettled

Premiums are developing in the Canadian sea scallop market as approximately 95% of the offshore quota has been caught. Frozen inventory levels are not as abundant compared to previous years and one factor contributing to this are fewer exports from Japan into Canada.

This past year, while Japan harvested the same number of scallops as expected, the harvest was of a smaller size, attributing to about 25% less product available for export. Less exports, paired with strong domestic demand in Japan ...

The Fishery Problem from Hell: Right Whales and Gear Entanglement (The Winding Glass)

The right whale population is hovering at the brink of failure, with around 400 surviving individuals.  In some years, there has been some population increase, and in other years not.  But the fact is that unintentional killing of right whales through both ship strikes and gear entanglements is preventing the population from increasing to a safer level and exacerbating the risk the entire species will go extinct.

Although the population increased between 1990 and 2010, since then it has begun another decline...

ANALYSIS: Strong Canadian Lobster Landings

Strong Canadian landings coupled with the seasonal lull in demand has put downward pressure on live lobster prices.  The current average market price for 2lb hard shell lobster FOB New England is $8.05, down 8% compared to this time last year.  The lower price adjustments have been closely following the seasonal pattern; however, for the month of June prices have stalled while the historical chart indicates an upward trend.

Market prices peaked mid- February and adjusted lower as the Canadian spring fishing seasons commenced...

ANALYSIS: Venezuela Crab Meat Imports into U.S. Drop Dramatically

Venezuela’s market share has grown in 2019. Through April, Venezuela owns a 14.6 percent market share; a rise from their 9.97 percent market share last year at the same time. Year-to-date figures are up 49.1 percent and currently 2.5 million pounds have been imported into the U.S. market this year. Venezuela is the second highest importing country to Indonesia, who is the far and away leader in the category.

However, with the country’s current political climate, imports into the...

ANALYSIS: April Pangasius Imports Lowest Since 2007

Imports of pangasius frozen fillets totaled 5.6 million pounds for the month of April. Volumes fell 44.4 percent from the previous month and 56.6 percent from April 2018 when imports totaled 12.9 million pounds. This is the lowest recorded month of imports since February 2009 brought in 5.3 million pounds, and the lowest April on record since 2007 recorded 3.3 million pounds of product.

Pangasius imports have fallen month-over-month since January. When looking at the previous 3-year average for the month of April, April 2019 falls 66.1 percent below...  

ANALYSIS: Chinese Tariff's Impact on Red Swimming Crab Meat Market

The Chinese tariff increase of 10 - 25% is an issue at the forefront for the red swimming crab meat market. China, the largest supplier of red swimming crab meat, saw record breaking imports at the end of 2018, just as the 10% tariff was being implemented and the threat for the January 1, 2019 tariff increase of 25% was baited. With much of the production front-loaded in the beginning of the 2018-2019 season, imports in 2019 have fallen off dramatically. Now, with the administration’s sudden implementation of...

ANALYSIS: Will Retail Features Keep Increasing Heading into the Holiday Season?

After the traditionally slow pre-Thanksgiving period for seafood promotions, things look to come back with a roar for the holidays. Most of the major seafood retail items, except for salmon and tilapia, are trading at lower prices than last year in December. And both salmon and tilapia have positives that may support more retail promotions over the holidays. For salmon, it is the higher prices of whitefish, that make it a more attractive staple. For tilapia, it is the heavy buying ahead of Chinese tariffs that...

ANALYSIS: NZ Mussels - September Imports Fall 75%; Lowest Ever Recorded

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] by Lorin Castiglione - November 8, 2018

Urner Barry quotations for Green Shell Mussels imported from New Zealand were recently pulled due to there not being sufficient inventory within the market to quote an accurate price for the commodity. Toxic algal blooms in New Zealand earlier this year caused the closure of most mussel farms and with the latest September import numbers recently published, we are seeing just how much of the production was affected.

Import volume for September recorded the lowest numbers ...