Results of second week of Russian pollock roe auctions in Pusan reveal change of trend

The average price was rising every day from 7.57 to 7.88 and further to 8.19 USD per kilo and the average indications through the week amounted to 7.93 USD per kilo. The week showed that the buyers realized that the US output of high quality pollock roe fit for production of gift packs was deficient and they started to purchase such products from the Russian fishermen. Therefore every product lot was in strong demand from the buyers, prices of pollock roe made by Akros exceeded 10.00 USD per kilo, and prices of pollock roe produced by BAMR, Roliz and Pacific Andes came close to the psychological limit. Large buyers were trying to purchase large consignments of 150-300 metric tons equal to shiploads of several vessels owned by one seller. At the same time, the Japanese buyers were bidding too low prices for January pollock roe which was completely unjustified. Though they acknowledged that pollock roe in January 2010 was quite mature, but the actual bid prices did not exceed 8.00 USD per kilo.

The current year 2010 featured low activity of buyers and sellers on Tuesdays. The sales volumes on 23 and 30 March 2010 were low, the activity on Wednesdays (24 and 31 March 2010) was abnormally high.

The undisputed leader in purchases was Maruha-Nichiro, the share of which amounted to one half of all the products sold during two and a half weeks.