Salmon Market Prices Enter Seasonal, Post-Memorial Day Decline from Near-Record Highs
A seasonal, post Memorial Day decline in wholesale salmon market prices has likely started after Chilean prices declined significantly just a week after Urner Barry relisted quotations at near record highs. Average Urner Barry prices for Chilean fresh fillets fell 8 percent last week after they were relisted at a near-record high price point in the third week of May. Farmed salmon prices usually decline after Memorial Day since consumers switch consumption patterns for the summer at the same time that more wild Alaskan product hits the market. However, unlike last year, prices will fall from more premium levels because of the algae bloom and strike that drove up the market before June.
NOAA's Assistant Administrator Eileen Sobeck wrote to the European Commission on Monday with preliminary findings from US and Canadian scientists that Sweden's position to ban North American live lobsters isn't supported by science. Sobeck's letter was accompanied with Swedish data that was analyzed by NMFS and Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
In other news, High Liner's CEO Kieth Decker condemned the implementation of the USDA's Catfish Inspection program as unnecessary and a threat to increase seafood consumption among US customers. “We have to figure out a way to be able to more than double seafood consumption, so we hope through our work, and the support of our senators, we can continue to eliminate these efforts to block seafood consumption through trade protectionism, etc., so we can continue to expand our work,” Decker said.
Meanwhile, the European Union warned Thailand on Tuesday to take "swift and determined action" by next month to improve its fisheries and labor practices or face a serious economic threat of an EU ban on Thai seafood.
Finally, eight out of the 13 Vietnamese fish farming provinces in the Mekong Delta have declared a state of disaster due to prolonged drought. The provinces include Kien Giang, Long An, Ca Mau, Tien Giang, Vinh Long, Ben Tre, Soc Trang and Tra Vinh. Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) reports that Ca Mau has been the most badly affected with over 70 percent of its farming area damaged, followed by Tra Vinh and Ben Tre provinces with over 30 percent of their areas destroyed.
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