Up until early September, wild salmon was coming out of British Columbia’s Fraser River in droves — similar to the bountiful Alaska salmon harvest.
Then, the Fraser River estimate was lowered 10 percent, and as U.S. fishermen caught less, sockeye prices jumped the weekend of 6 September after the Canadian government announced closures of two subareas beginning 4 September to commercial fishing. The most recent estimate for the Fraser sockeye run, on 9 September, is 20.7 million fish, 2.12 million fish less than the pre-season forecast of 22.8 million, according to the Pacific Salmon Commission.
“A lot of people were profit-taking. Fillet prices went up about USD 1 (EUR 0.77) a pound with the closure and then slid back around 30 cents,” said a Northwest U.S. distributor. “Our retailers had ads that weekend — it was hard to get enough to finish it off.”
However, that early September blip was an anomaly in what has been a record season for Pacific salmon. A total of 42.8 million red, or sockeye, salmon have been caught in Alaska waters, 27 percent ahead of the projection and 46 percent more than last year’s total. King, or chinook, landings in the state have been better than forecasted, as 477,000 fish have been landed, beating the state’s 298,000-fish prediction, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
A total of 89.4 million pink salmon had been landed in Alaska as of 30 August.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Fraser River sockeye catch has been plentiful, but will come in below the record 30 million-fish run in 2010. In late August, the Pacific Salmon Commission (PSC) said that the catch in Canadian, U.S. and test fisheries reached 7.23 million fish as of 5 September, 2014, compared to the 9.6 million salmon caught through 3 September, 2010, a record year.
Still, the later-than-usual harvest is benefitting U.S. buyers. “A record late sockeye run, primarily from the Canadian Fraser River, has allowed unprecedented retail ads for the time of year,” the distributor said.
As a result, prices for sockeye salmon have risen to between USD 3.45 and USD 3.75 (EUR 2.67 to EUR 2.90) a pound for 6 to 9 pounds, king salmon are going for between USD 3.65 and 5.25 (EUR 2.83 to EUR 4.06) a pound f.o.b. Seattle for 11 to 18 pounds and cohos range from USD 2.65 to USD 3.15 (EUR 2.05 to EUR 2.44) f.o.b. Seattle for 6 to 9 pounds.
In addition, buyers are having a difficult time finding particular sizes of king, pink, chum and 6 to 9-pound sockeyes from British Columbia and Alaska, according to Rob Reierson, CEO of distributor Tradex Foods in Victoria, B.C., Canada. “Sources have told us that roughly 80 percent of the sockeye harvested in Alaska were 4 to 6 [pounds] and 90 percent of the sockeye harvested in Canada are 4 to 6s,” Reierson said in a recent “3 Minute Market Insight” report from Tradex.
Despite the availability challenges, the market has not seen an expected flood of product after Russia banned seafood exports from the West. “The Russian scare didn’t come to fruition. Everyone thought it would affect the wild market and the whole salmon market, but it really hasn’t,” the Northwest distributor said.
As a result, farmed salmon prices have stayed steady in the mid- to high-USD 4 per pound range for fillets. “With the Atlantic salmon guys, it is like a funeral. They are just waiting for wild to be finished so they can raise their price,” the distributor said.
