December 13, 2011

The price of Peruvian fishmeal in 2012 will remain high at about US$1,350/tonne although it is unlikely to achieve the highest levels of the early months of 2011 at approximately US$1,800/tonne, says the Department of Economic Studies of Scotiabank.

In addition, the agency stated it is likely that domestic production of fishmeal remains relatively stable in 2012, since so far no reports on the presence of the climate phenomena known as El Niño and La Niña have been released, the newspaper El Comercio reported.

Last year, La Niña seriously affected fishmeal production in the country.

According to experts, next year the landings of anchovy (Engraulis ringens) will total about 6.1 million tonnes and will produce about 1.4 million tonnes of fishmeal.

Last November, the consultant Maximixe reported that between January and October 2011, Peru exported 1.2 million tonnes of fishmeal, 14.3% more than on-year.

For the consultant, this increase was due to a higher availability of anchovy.

According to the available data, since April 2011, there has been a downward trend in the price of fishmeal.

During that month, the average value per tonne reached US$1,519, 17.1% less than in April last year.

By 2012, it is expected that international prices show an upward trend and will average about US$1,575 per tonne.

In the latest Statistical Bulletin prepared by the Ministry of Production (Produce), it is indicated that between January and September this year, 4.7 million tonnes of anchovy were landed, 61.8% more than on-year (2.9 million tonnes).