A SURVEY OF KEY MARKETS OF PACIFIC FISH PRODUCTS AS PER MID-JULY 2012

It looks like Bristol Sockeye season will be one of the worst in history.  Any other time it would've been good news for Russian producers, but not this year, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to Japanese media.

Chilean Coho supply to Japan is high, and price dropped down.  It will inevitably touch Sockeye sales.  In fact the abundance of Coho influences even cod and halibut markets.

Total production of Russian Sockeye at East Kamchatka was about 6.0 th.t, though the greater part was small size.  This is similar to results of American season.  L-size (2.5-3.0 kg) was just about 3% of total volume.  M-size (2.0-2.5 kg) was about 33.5%, but S and 2S sizes (1.5-2.0 and 1.2-1.5 kg) reached 63%.  2S-size was 35%.  Naturally, price for this product was really low, the first shipments were sold at $4.00 FOB fishing ground.

As for pollock roe, the only interesting information is "surprise" of the market experts that total volume of roe sold at Busan auctions is higher than officially reported production level at three major zones at Sea of Okhotsk.  It is probably an indicator of the experts' qualification and reliability.  What could be ex-pected from specialists who don't even know that there are zones where roe collection is possible almost all the year round (South and North Kuril, East Sakhalin).