December 23, 2009

Sharp drop in Peru's October seafood exports

New data showed that Peruvian seafood export sales during October generated US$95.8 million, down 31.3% from the same month last year.

Export volume fell by 29.3% to 82,200 tonnes from 116,300 tonnes a year ago, according to the Ministry of Production (Produce).

The decline reflects lower sales of fishmeal, canned seafood products and frozen seafood products, which dropped 54.4%, 44% and 40.5%, respectively.

Peru exported 32,700 tonnes of fishmeal in October, down from 71,700 tonnes a year ago. Of that, 28.6% were traditional fishmeal, 47.3% were prime fishmeal, and 24.1% were super prime fishmeal.

The main markets for Peruvian fishmeal were China, Germany, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, the UK, Turkey, Spain, Australia, Indonesia, France, Canada and Italy, which together purchased 95.7% of total export sales.

Exports of frozen seafood products during October totalled 16,000 tonnes, compared with 26,900 tonnes in the same month of 2008. China, Spain, the US, South Korea, France, Ecuador, Italy, Thailand, Russia, Germany, Japan and Brazil acquired 86.1% of frozen product exports.

In October, 1,400 tonnes of canned products were exported, 83.2% of which were shipped to Uruguay, Germany, Colombia, Spain, Bolivia, Panama, Dominican Republic and the US.

From January to October, Peru's total seafood exports reached 1.95 million tonnes, down 1.9% on-year mainly due to lower canned and frozen product sales, which declined by 34.8% and 12%, respectively, according to the ministry. Value during this period totalled US$1.89 billion, down 12.3% on-year.