The Season's First Shipment of Salmon by Northern Sea Route causing mixed Feelings
Skyfrost reefer owned by Laskaridis is taking the season's first shipment of salmon by Northern Sea Route from Kamchatka to St-Petersburg, reports http://www.megafishnet.com/ with reference to Russia's Federal Fisheries Agency.
The vessel's ETA is 20 September current as it has sailed with 8265 tonnes of fish onboard, the cargo owned by Moscow-based Russian Fish Company and partly by Kamchatka-based Lloyd-Fish.
Apart from salmon products, the ship is also carrying bottom fish for human consumption (pollock and flatfish).
The market players are a bit worried by the development as the prices asked by the Russian Fish Company for w/r and head-on gutted pink salmon on prepayment basis aresaid to be lower than the current market. In particular, they say that depending on the volume the prices will start from RUR 68-69.
Meanwhile according to Russia's Federal Fisheries Agency this season is likely to see shipments by Northern Sea Route dwindle from some 40 000 tonnes last year to about 10-15 k tonnes.
This is due to high cost of ice-breaker service on overall season of less than 100 k tonnes of fish as well as lack of large traders on the market able to contract from 50 k tonnes of fish for shipment by the route for the season and qualify for a discount.
FFA believes that in 2013 however the conditions improve and shipments of fish by the Northern Sea Route will increase again as a faster and cheaper alternative to expensive delivery from the Russian Far East to European Russia by the railway.
According to Wikipedia the Northern Sea Route is a shipping lane officially defined by Russian legislation from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean specifically running along the Russian Arctic coast from Murmansk on the Barents Sea, along Siberia, to the Bering Strait and Far East. The entire route lies in Arctic waters and parts are free of ice for only two months per year. Before the beginning of the 20th century it was called the Northeast Passage, and is still sometimes referred to by that name.