Results of second round of Russian pollock roe auctions in Busan
On 23-25 March 2010 the second round of Russian pollock roe auctions took place in Busan, according to the overview prepared by analysts of http://www.megafishnet.com/ (https://www.fishnet.ru/) based on Japanese and Russian sources.
The Japanese sources say that the supply was below the expected volume and amounted to ca.4200 tonnes namely, prices for high quality roe reaching the level of 10.00 USD per kilo. As compared with the first round of auctions (in early March 2010), prices for high quality products rose by ca.30%, those for products of medium quality and lower quality increased by ca.10% and their range was limited to only 7.00-8.00 USD per kilo. There were also reports about even smaller prices, however they mainly concerned products of extremely low quality remaining out of demand from the Japanese buyers.
According to the Japanese reports, main sellers of Russian pollock roe were such leading companies as Kamchatka-based Akros and Kamchatimpex, Vladivostok-based NBAMR and PBTF and the Chinese giant Pacific Andes. During the second auctions round Akros and NBAMR sold ca.800 tonnes of products. The number of the Japanese and other buyers remained fairly big and that was attributed as confirmation of retaining strong interest in purchases of Russian products. Higher prices in the second round of auctions were mostly due to a noticeable rise of quality, as the supply on offer was dominated by products made in February 2010 and already in the beginning of March 2010 the Japanese side was almost sure that the peak of Okhotsk pollock roe quality in the current year was observed in February 2010 rather than in March 2010.
In this connection the price rise was in compliance with the rising product quality and the increase of prices could be mostly attributed to weak results of the first round of US pollock roe auctions in Seattle. Some market specialists say that the Russian side has already reached its goal by pausing the auction sales for the period of the first round of auctions in Seattle.