There is no sign of whether infectious salmon anemia (ISA) is impacting production or sales from farms in British Columbia, Canada, but growers and buyers are watching for clues as to whether any impacts — real or imagined — will cause marketplace disruption.
B.C. salmon growers maintain there is no problem with ISA, despite a few positive test results they say are not being duplicated when these allegedly positive samples are being retested — sometimes as much as 32 more times.
But can the mere perception of ISA be enough to create problems in the supply chain?
“Lice don’t affect people. People don’t understand the nuance. Lice is more of an issue in the EU and Chile,” said an executive at a U.S. West Coast seafood company. “I think it’s yet another effort to derail B.C. and will blow over in the light of science. But if it is proven true, the government might close it down or overly encumber it before any boycott could drive them out of business.”
The more important factor driving Canadian salmon sales, the executive says, are the lower prices for all salmon caused by increasing supply from Norway into the U.S. market this fall and the return of Chilean production this year. Working in Canada's favor, he says, is the perception its salmon is of higher quality than the fish being grown in Chile.
Although prices could rise in the short term due to the upcoming holiday season, the West Coast executive says there remains excess, “Possibly aggravated by some holding back to raise prices unsuccessfully.” Prices for whole salmon from British Columbia in the 8- to-10-pound range have been selling for as low as USD 2.35 a pound on big-volume purchases, he says.
One executive at an East Coast seafood distributor says prices for salmon from all four main growing countries remains in the range of USD 4.25 to USD 4.35 a pound in the spot market, with the spot market determining which country will prevail with the lowest price in any given week.
“I think that the Canadian salmon farmers have done a very good job of placing their product strategically so they don’t always have to fight in the wholesale spot market arena of the Norwegians, Chileans and Scottish — that market which seems to be whoever has the cheapest price sort of wins the day,” the East Coast executive said. “They don't have to play in this spot market mixed-martial-arts fight every week where they all just sort of get into the ring and beat each other up to sell it at the cheapest price so that they can move their inventory.”
Prices for whole Atlantic salmon from Canada is competitive with the whole European fish, and Canadian fillets generally are slightly higher, the East Coast executive says, adding it’s important to remember spot market prices don’t always reflect actual market prices.
His customers that ask for Canadian salmon specifically like the fact it can come to market much more quickly than fish from Europe or Chile — usually in one or two days after being pulled from the pen. “You have less days out of the water, and less days off the knife, and I think that resonates with a lot of people,” he said.
The vast majority of Canadian Atlantic salmon exports — 93.2 million pounds through August, according to Statistics Canada — go to the United States. Canada is also looking to make inroads into China. The latest numbers show Atlantic salmon exports of 647,120 pounds to China through August, more than 10 times the amount shipped in all of 2010.
