Salmon prices stall again

The rise in salmon prices which sent a few industry pulses racing just over a week ago seems to have been short-lived, the latest figures from Norway suggest.
Fresh or chilled salmon fell back by 1.9 per cent to NOK 47.67 between week 47 and week 48, which is higher than the 1.3 per cent increase reported by Statistics Norway last month. Prices are now more than 24 per cent than this time last year. However, export levels at 24,964 tonnes in week 48 were slightly up.
The price per kilo of frozen salmon (excluding by products) at NOK 50.44, was 4.4 per cent lower than the week before and 15.7 per cent lower than the same week in 2019. In the period, 496 kilos of frozen salmon were exported. This is an increase of 70.4 per cent from week 47.
Fish sold on contract are included in the statistics. The reported prices are the value when crossing the Norwegian border, and includes, among other things, shipping and terminal costs.
Hopes had been raised a couple of weeks ago that prices were at last moving away from the stubbornly low levels of the past few months.
The good news on Covid-19 vaccines suggested that the hotel, restaurant and catering sector, which buys salmon on a large scale could return to normal by the spring.
Most seafood analysts remain confident that price will pick up come the new year, once it becomes clear infections are starting to show a marked decline.
However, fears have been expressed that failure to secure a UK-EU trade deal could eventually hit Norwegian salmon exports to Britain.