October 11, 2010

Prices of Chilean salmon exports to Japan jump 20%

The wholesale import price of Chilean Atlantic salmon in Japan has jumped 20% since the beginning of 2010, to JPY600 (US$7.26) per kilogramme, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

While in previous years Chilean producers would visit Japan, this year Japanese buyers have had to travel to Chile to negotiate, indicating that it is a seller's market.

Meanwhile, the Chilean salmon industry is still recovering from the 2007 outbreak of infectious salmon anemia, which reduced production significantly. However, Chile's national fisheries agency, Sernapesca, has reported no new outbreaks since this spring.

One of the main countermeasures the industry and government have taken is to designate production zones and to increase the distances between them through relocation of fish farms. Production is coordinated within a zone, and a rest period for the entire zone between rearing cycles will allow the environment to recover before the next batch is introduced.

Production has dropped, and exports declined 33.5%, from 273,715 tonnes in the first half of 2009 to 181,393 tonnes during the same period this year, according to reports. By value, exports in the first half of 2010 declined 14%, totalling US$1.025 billion, compared to US$1.193 million in the same period last year.

Volumes to Chile's traditional markets, Japan and the US, have declined, by 8%, to US$436.3 million, and 28.7%, to US$227.5 million, respectively. Exports to the European Union fell 63.5%, to US$31.9 million.

However, exports to Latin America reached US$171.7 million in the first half of 2010, up 24.5%, with Brazil the region's largest customer. With a 38% increase in value, to US$124 million, Brazil has become the third largest importer for Chilean salmon, accounting for 12% of sales.

While most of the Chile's production is Atlantic salmon, the fifth-largest exporter of Chilean salmonids, Nissui-owned Salmones Antartica S.A., based in Conchi, produces coho salmon and trout. In contrast to the general trend, the company's exports grew by 19% in the first half of the year, compared to the same period in 2009.

Even as Japan struggles to obtain salmon at a price that penny-pinching consumers will accept, exports of Japan's own pink salmon, mainly from Hokkaido, are increasing annually, with China taking the biggest share. In 2009, exports exceeded 100,000 tonnes. Of the Japanese pink salmon catch, 60% is exported.