Import of Russian seafood to Japan in March 2009 displaying good dynamics

The general development of shipments of Russian seafood in March 2009 to Japan was more favourable than in 2008 thus giving good chances for the Russian producers to enjoy a successful year. The positive forecast is also confirmed by the fact that in March 2009 both the impact of the world economic crisis and new customs clearance routine for seafood exports have grown fairly explicit without creating any serious barriers for shipments' growth, concluded analysts of www.fishnet-russia.com (www.fishnet.ru) based on the Japanese sources as per 24 April 2009.

In the meantime, the value of import shipments has increased more considerably as compared to the volume of shipments thus indicating a rise of average import prices both due to larger nominal prices and smaller shipments of less expensive products.

The total value of the Japanese import of food products of the Russian origin in March 2009 reached 5 billion Yen (5050 million Yen CIF) and exceeded the result of March 2008 by 11%. The value of seafood import grew by 8.3% to 4957 million Yen and the value of frozen shrimp import grew by 42.2% to 1207 million Yen.

The volume of shrimp import jumped by 34.5% to ca.1100 tonnes (the average import price amounted to 1099 Yen per kilo). And the total volume of seafood shipments grew by 0.7% to 8114 tonnes. In general for the Russian shipments the average import price amounted to ca.611 Yen per kilo, while the average price of Japanese import amounted to only 543 Yen per kilo.