Overview of seafood exports from Russia's Far East in November 2010

The year 2010 turned out to be fairly successful for the Russian producers who managed (mostly thanks to big problems of their US colleagues) to push up sales at the same time avoiding considerable decline of prices, according to the overview prepared by analysts of http://www.megafishnet.com/ based on Japanese, Russian and American sources.

In November 2010 the situation with shipments of frozen pollock roe of the Russian origin to main markets remained mixed, though in general it was completely in keeping with the main trends of shipments of products from 2010 with the total import volume for shipments to Japan, South Korea and China still being much higher than in 2009.

At the same time, in the current year 2011 market specialists do not expect that shipments will continue rising, because the reduction of catch quotas for Okhotsk operations by more than 8% cannot but tell on the roe output, moreover the weather and water conditions may turn to be even more difficult than last year.

Prospects for production volumes and sales of Russian products along with a 54% rise of US capture quotas in the Bering Sea do not add optimism especially taking into account recent reports about a change of pollock classes. The latter should result to dramatic changes in the age structure of pollock harvested in the east of the Bering Sea and correspondingly the size structure of US pollock roe size which in the year 2010 dissatisfied both the US producers and the Japanese importers and users judging by the results of the spring auctions in Seattle.

Russian Far East seafood exports in January-November 2009-2010 (compiled by FISHNET analysts from reported figures (the table will be published in the January issue of the Russian Fish Insider Report coming soon)