Unseasonably cold spring weather in Alaska has resulted in a slow start to the Alaska salmon season, keeping supply down and prices high. Also impacting pricing are strong prices for wild Russian salmon, and high prices for farmed product.
The cold spring kept large blocks of ice in the Copper River, keeping the fish out at sea waiting for the ice to break up to begin their upriver migration. The ice did not delay the start of the Copper River season, but it has slowed the flow of fish into the river, prompting state fisheries officials to space out the openers until enough fish had passed the sonar and been counted for escapement.
The fishing periods have been strong, with lots of fish being caught. Entering the second week of June, there were more than 500,000 sockeyes landed, according the Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G). Ex-vessel prices, according to one fisherman, were around USD 4 (EUR 3.04) a pound for sockeyes, with the few kings landed fetching between USD 5 (EUR 3.80) and USD 7 (EUR 5.33).
A buyer for a national chain of seafood restaurants says he's been paying around USD 13 (EUR 9.90) for sockeye and USD 19 (EUR 14.46) for kings, which is about where he expected it to be for the start of the Copper River season. “That’s about where we thought it would be. Hopefully, we’d like to see sockeyes drop below USD 10 (EUR 7.61) but you know the way it is in Alaska. I’m not sure we'll see that until some other rivers open,” the buyer said. “Overall, we’ve been pretty pleased so far.”
The buyer says the slow movement of fish into the river has not impacted his ability to get the fish he needs. “We haven’t seen it. Availability has been good for us and we’ve been able to get a nice selection of kings and sockeyes,” he said.
As more Alaska fisheries come online this summer, one fisherman was hopeful Copper River sockeye would continue to maintain strong pricing, at least for a few more runs. “Even though we had some huge catches, fishing periods were staggered enough and, coupled with demand, the fish are being absorbed into the market very well; there’s no apparent glut of fish,” he says. “So I’m hoping the price will stay around USD 3 (EUR 2.28) a pound for at least the next one or two fishing periods up until 10 June, which is when some other regions come online and put some sockeye into the marketplace.”
Strong farmed salmon prices have helped keep wild prices high, he said. “When farmed prices trend up, we go up as well, and when they go down we kind of trend with them,” he said.
One trader says prices for wild Russian sockeye are up nearly 40 percent over 2012, running around USD 3.75 (EUR 2.85) a pound, and that likely will impact prices for Alaska salmon.
The 2013 Alaska pink salmon season began 1 June, and ADF&G has forecast a run of 40 million fish, of which 34 million fish are available for commercial catch. The department is predicting a Bristol Bay sockeye salmon run of around 26 million fish, with between 16 million and 17 million available for commercial harvest.
