Atlantic salmon prices have come down drastically over the last couple of months and have still not stabilized. The market is nervous with buyers hesitant to commit.
Prices rebounded somewhat during mid July as supply from Norway was reduced because of summer closures in some of the slaughtering facilities, but fell back subsequently.
The reason for the fall is a mixture of factors; the gradual come-back of Chile in the US and Japanese markets, the decline in Norway’s exports to China and the USA in 2011, and the accumulated resistance in all markets towards the very high price levels seen during the first half of 2011. Processors and retailers, in particular, had seen their margins and sales suffer and had no interest in entering into new contracts at former levels. During the autumn, however, more Chilean supply will come to market with obvious repercussions in both the fresh and frozen segments. The big change, however, will come next year from April onwards as the new Chilean production reaches market size in serious proportions.
