March 3, 2010

Sharp spike in Peruvian seafood exports

Peruvian seafood exports generated US$225.6 million in revenue in December, 58% more than in the same month of 2008 at US$142.8 million, the Ministry of Production (Produce) reveals.

Exports volume also increased by 21.6%%, from 139,500 tonnes dispatched through December 2008 to 169,700 tonnes this year. This spike reflects greater sales of cured products and fishmeal, which soared 150% and 55.5%, respectively.

According to data from Produce, 139,500 tonnes of fishmeal were exported in December 2009, against 89,700 tonnes a year before. Of the volume sold overseas, 30.6% were of traditional fishmeal, 47.4% of prime fishmeal and 22% of super prime fishmeal.

The main markets for Peruvian fishmeal were China, Germany, Turkey, Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan, UK, Australia, Spain, Canada, France and Bulgaria, which bought nearly 95.8% of the commercialised total.

Meanwhile, raw fish oil exports totalled 14,400 tonnes, with Denmark, Canada, China, Spain, Australia, Norway, Chile and Belgium receiving 90.6% of the shipments.

Some 11,000 tonnes of frozen seafood products were also exported in December 2009, in comparison with 16,800 tonnes in the same month of 2008.

The majority of frozen seafood products were elaborated with squid, mahi mahi, hake, shrimp and anchovy, species that constituted 65% of the export total.

The US, Spain, China, France, Korea, Italy, Thailand, Germany, Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico and Russia made up 84.5% of the sales of frozen seafood products.

Meanwhile, 1,800 tonnes of canned products were sold overseas in the last month of 2009, whereas 2,300 tonnes were exported in December of the previous year. Of these shipments, 99.7% corresponded to canned mackerel, jack mackerel, anchovy, shrimp and trout varieties.

The main destination markets for these products were Colombia, Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Panama, Germany, Brazil, the US, Spain, Taiwan, Uruguay, Japan and Greece, nations where 81.7% of the exported total were sent.

December's exports increased the total volume of seafood products sold for export in the twelve months of last year to 2.18 million tonnes.

This figure reflects a fall of 2.7% against the 2.24 million tonnes exported in the same period of 2008, the Produce report indicates. The total value of exports through December 2009 topped US$2.208,6 billion, 9.2% below the US$2.432,4 billion registered in the same period of 2008.