Overview of freshfrozen fish market of Saint Petersburg in October 2006

As per mid-October 2006 the market in St. Petersburg has seen considerable developments as regards herring and mackerel as compared to a month ago, trading sources told RFR.

Below follow more details on particular species with average prices given as ex-coldstore VAT inclusive for quantities of between 1-10 metric tons unless specified otherwise.

Freshfrozen herring

In the middle of October the situation on the Russian herring market has become unpredictable due to the following reasons:

hot summer and long warm autumn have resulted into productive fishery in the Russian zone;

Norwegian inventories of herring 300+ from the February harvest shipped to Russia on a regular basis made a considerable impact on market conditions in general;

rumors of looming ban on import of Norwegian seafood (pelagics inclusive) under common veterinary certificates did not encourage the price to stabilize.

As per mid-October poorly graded Russian herring classified as large and fat was available from RUR17.50-16.50, while Russian herring 300+ was marketed from RUR26.00-25.00 per kilo FCA Saint Petersburg.

Norwegian summer herring 300+ was not harvested in 2006, while last year in August-September the fleets harvested the so called fjord herring.

Main autumn fishery in Norway was not even started because the fleet was targeting mackerel.

Supply of newly caught herring was small and approximately 50% of available stock had sizes 300+ unlike last year when traders offered larger herring.

The size 300+ was traded at RUR26.50-27.00 per kilo FCA Saint Petersburg.

Mackerel

In summer mackerel fishery in Russia was a success just like sales of mackerel products. In the middle of October Russian mackerel head-off was still marketed at high prices from RUR70.00 per kilo of the size 300+, while the size 200-300 was offered from RUR58.00, but the sales were slow.

The thing is that after the autumn fishery start in Norway catches of mackerel jumped twice-fold as compared to last year and the supply began quickly growing.

As a result, Norwegian mackerel depreciated from RUR70.00 to RUR51.00 per kilo due to large supply. Prices for the size 600+ dropped from RUR85.00 to RUR80.00 per kilo.

Baltic herring, Baltic sprat

Latvian and Estonian fish fit for canning was not available on the market because the autumn was warm and high quality fish was not yet harvested.

There was practically no Baltic sprat available on the market at all.

Blue whiting

Prices stabilized at RUR15.50 per kilo in Saint Petersburg.

No substantial changes were observed on the market as compared to one month ago.

Alaska pollock

Alaska pollock 25+ was offered from RUR42.00 per kilo in Saint Petersburg.

Pink salmon

Pink salmon from the new harvest was traded from RUR45.00 per kilo in Saint Petersburg.

Wholesale prices in Murmansk, dateline 16 October 2006

Wholesale prices in Saint Petersburg, dateline 16 October 2006

Wholesale prices in Vladivostok, dateline 16 October 2006