30,000 Tons of undersized salmon for sale
The stacked up rows frozen containers seen on the premises of salmon processing facilities and the deep hum of electric generators give a hint of what’s going on. Anywhere between 30,000 to 40,000 tons (the average export volume of an entire month) of frozen Atlantic salmon are sitting in cold storage, waiting until the price is right. The fish size range is a mere 1 – 2 kg, which currently sell at a price10% lower than the going rate for an average sized salmon. So the salmon companies are holding out, biding time, until the market begins to note the steady drop in the global salmon supply. As the market begins to run out of fish due to Chile’s estimated 50% drop in production this year, these small fish will come in handy when buyers won’t have the option of being picky over size. In an interview with Intrafish, Cermaq’s financial controller Steven Rafferty states, "They [the salmon companies] know that the offer for Atlantic salmon will begin to drop, so there will be an opportunity for them to reprocess and sell this accumulated stock at much better prices."
