Outcome of pollock roe sales in Busan on week 14 and outlook for week 15

By the way, just one seller company openly expressed their regret and sorrow. Strange. We don't see any real reason for such an increase.  Total production of USA and Russia is very much the same as in 2009-2010, quality - the same too.   The disaster provided damage neither to roe stock nor to processing facilities.  Consumption growth is related with panic and rumors, and with crazy speculations as well.  The rumors will calm down in a time, that's obvious.  However, price went that up.

Total volume inspected was unheard of - 6,351 MT, mainly because of a break in auctions.  The figure doesn't include private inspections and direct sales.  The buyers' inspectors rushed between cold storages, e.g. on Wednesday there were 19 inspections within 7 hours.  Surprise - almost all sales went smoothly and quickly.  Average price was more than $9.00 per kilo (8.18 for the same quality in 2010).

The next week will be short.  There are inspections planned for Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning.  Most buyers are supposed to leave for Seattle on Thursday. However, planned volume for the 2 days is 1.5-2.0 thousand MT.  It will make total sales volume from the season beginning about 11,000 MT, i.e. less than half of total volume, that is very unusual.

When the article was finished CNN reported another 6.1 earthquake, this time not near Tokyo, but at Kyushu where most roe processing facilities are concentrated.  No information about damage as yet.