The global supply of Atlantic salmon in the first quarter of 2017 declined by 6.3 percent year-on-year when taking into account inventory movements, with the reduction corresponding to 31,600 metric tons (MT) of fish, but there should be some turnaround in the current quarter, expects Faroe Islands-based producer Bakkafrost Group.
In its recently published Q1 2017 results, Bakkafrost states that the market supply of head on gutted (HOG) salmon in the first three months of this year amounted to 475,000 MT, down 3.4 percent year-on-year, while the average price of EUR 7.28 (USD 8.14) per kg was up 18.3 percent year-on-year in line with the drop in supply.
In terms of output, Europe (including Norway) produced 303,800 MT of HOG salmon in the last quarter, up 2.2 percent. This increase was mainly attributed to good growing conditions and opportunistic harvesting in Norway. However, the Faroese Q1 harvest was down 11.7 percent year-on-year to 14,900 MT, due to variances in its harvest patterns.
The total Americas harvest, meanwhile, amounted to 151,100 MT HOG, down 14.9 percent year-on-year. This decline was mainly attributed to Chile’s algae bloom challenges in 2016.
With regard to salmon sales, there were large declines in most of the main markets. Europe bought 206,200 MT of HOG salmon in Q1 2017, down 8 percent or 17,700 MT year-on-year; the United States bought 98,600 MT, down 4 percent, Latin America bought 34,700 MT, down 21 percent; Greater China bought 21,200 MT, down 15 percent; and Japan bought 13,800 MT, down 7 percent.
Bakkafrost said it expects an upturn in the short-term supply, with growth between 4 percent and 11 percent year-on-year in the coming quarters, with more product coming from Chile in particular. The company also makes the assumption that Norway will again face biological challenges, but highlighted that if it performs better than expected, then it could reach the upper-end of the forecast.
Overall, it expects the global supply to increase by just 2 percent this year compared with 2016.
Bakkafrost has forecast its own 2017 harvest to amount to 53,500 MT of gutted weight salmon.
