SEAFOODNEWS.COM — May 28, 2014 — Price negotiations for roe herring shipped to Japan are proving very difficult this year for BC packers.
Many are ready to begin shipping roe products in June, but packers and Japanese traders remain far apart on price.
This year herring harvests have recovered to over 60,000 tons (short tons) coast-wide, from San Francisco to Togiak, which is similar to harvests in 2006 and 2010, which were also above 60,000 tons.
BC packers, with 16,529 tons, were only slightly above the 15,166 tons they produced in all areas in 2013, but harvests in Sitka and Togiak have come in strongly also, with very good size distribution. The result is more roe is available.
According to trade reports, Japanese traders are moving very slowly in price negotiation because the uncertainty over supply shortage has disappeared, as volume and size composition has improved across the board. Sources say that price negotiations over North American herring roe, which started in San Francisco earlier this year, are stalled in Sitka at the moment without any final overall agreement.
At the same time, there is no firm pricing out of either BC, Sitka, or Bristol Bay. One source says that a Togiak packer has a shipping price of $500 per short ton FOB with a Japanese buyer.
in BC, packers ship green roe in brine, instead of whole frozen fish. Some BC packers are likely to ship on consignment to make sure they don't get cut out of their markets by product from Sitka. One report on BC pricing is that an importer has a shpping price of $CA 5.80 / lb. for green roe, and trading sources think pricing should eventually be in the $CA 6.40 to $6.60 range as that would match the pricing expected from Sitka roe products processed in China and shipped to Japan. Some expect final prices will be set by this coming weekend.
US Packers have approximately the following tonnage.
North Pacific Seafoods: 8,500 tons
Trident: 6,500
Icicle: 4,000
Leader Creek: 2,600
Silver Bay Seafoods: 2,100
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.