Another Pollock Roe Week in Busan is Over

The Japanese holidays have passed, and all the market players met in Busan to define the destiny of Russian pollock roes.  The sellers didn't care about holidays in Russia, and sold almost six thousand tons, enormous volume.  Small doubt on the last day some buyers were simply short of money to give a proper price, reports www.megafishnet.com.

However, total volume for inspections turned out to be a bit less then just mentioned.  AKROS managed to surprise everybody again, and cancelled inspection of almost 500 MT of roes.  They were sold on Tuesday without an inspection to one of the biggest Japanese buyers.  There are rumors that the price was rather high, more than $14.

Speaking about prices, there were many forecasts in Russia that the price would've dropped after the Golden week.  However, the price level turned out to be stable.  Price for the same quality didn't change, and average weekly price was $12.79 for kilo.  Even more, this week was marked with the highest price of the season.  Sources say that high quality large size North Kuril roes made by BATM Mekhanik Bryzgalin belonging to BAMR were sold higher than $16.

However, all Russian players mention that it was difficult bargaining.  During the Golden week buyers calculate their demand and money, meet each other and coordinate procurement policies.  They already know how much roe the sellers have got, and run their business with full understanding of the market.  It was very difficult to move price up, and many deals were done at bid price.

Actually, the week May 8-10 was the last but one in roe auctions.  About 25 thousand tons of roe was sold, and even taking into account that not all the product was produced in Russia and there were some auctions of previous years' product, the season is almost over.  There is small doubt - after May, 17 there will be just some sales of East Sakhalin product.  That's why next week we plan seasonal report on the market.