Market News

Russian Surimi Production Increased by 40% to 30,000 mt

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The pollock fishing season (Season A) in the Sea of Okhotsk, Russia’s primary fishing ground, concluded on April 9th. According to the Pollock Catchers Association (PCA) in Vladivostok, the catch during the A season, spanning from January 1st to April 9th, reached 830,000 mt, marking a 3% increase compared to the same period last year. Approximately 87% of the total allowable catch (TAC) in the sea has been utilized. Surimi production experienced a notable surge of 40%, reaching 30,000 tons.

Across all regions of the Far Eastern basin, the total pollock catch surpassed 1.05 million tons, reflecting an 8.6% increase compared to the previous year.

PCA reports indicate that pollock product manufacturing followed a similar pattern to last year, with Russian fishermen maintaining production volumes of fillet and minced meat at last year’s levels, totaling approximately 60 thousand tons. Meanwhile, marine surimi production continued to rise, increasing by nearly 40% to 30,000 mt during the 2024 “A” season. Overall, frozen pollock production rose by 7% to 397,000 mt.

Source: seafood.media

Devaluation in Turkey Stimulates Local Banana Production and Apple Exports

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The recent depreciation of the Turkish lira against the US dollar, increasing by 12% since the start of 2024 and 71% over the year, has had significant implications for the fruit and vegetable industry. This devaluation has temporarily boosted Turkey’s export advantage in apples, excluding the Golden Delicious variety, as well as in lemon and grapefruit exports. Fedir Rybalko notes that the devaluation also stimulates local banana production.

With Iran’s withdrawal from the global apple market, Turkey stands to enhance its exports to India, a competitive market between the two countries. This shift could also bolster Turkey’s competitive position in exporting greenhouse tomatoes to Ukraine.

Turkey’s emphasis on bolstering domestic banana and other fruit and vegetable production is evident. It ranks among the top 8 global exporters in this sector, with exports growing annually by over 5%, equating to approximately US $320 million.

Although Russia remains the largest importer of Turkish fruits and vegetables, its share is decreasing. Conversely, exports to Germany, Iraq, Romania, and several other EU and Middle Eastern countries are on the rise.

Notably, Türkiye has significantly reduced banana imports over the past three years, with import volumes declining by more than fourfold.

Source: east-fruit.com

Russian Fisherman Caught over 5.3 mln mt of Fish in 2023

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In 2023, Russian fishermen caught over 5.3 million mt of fish, marking the highest figure recorded in the past three decades. This announcement was made by Ilya Shestakov, the Head of The Federal Agency for Fishery (Rosrybolovstvo). Shestakov emphasized Russia’s commendable level of fish self-sufficiency, which stands at over 150%, indicating the country’s capacity to meet its domestic demand for fish products.

Source: tass.com

Russia Doubles Seafood Exports to China

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In the first eleven months of the previous year, Russia demonstrated significant growth in its seafood exports to China, with figures revealing a remarkable 102% increase in volume. The value of these exports also saw a notable rise of 38%, totaling approximately 1,100,000 mt of seafood valued at $2 billion shipped to China between January and November.

This surge in exports is complemented by a concurrent increase in seafood imports from China to Russia, which grew by 6% to reach 52,000 tonnes during the same period. These imports included squid, tuna, canned products, crustaceans, and shrimp, amounting to a total value of $286 million.

Noteworthy items among Russia’s exports to China include just over half a million tonnes of frozen pollock, 213,000 mt of small pelagics, 111,000 mt of frozen herring, 62,000 mt of fishmeal, and 29,000 mt of frozen cod, further illustrating the depth of trade between the two nations in the seafood sector.

Source: fiskerforum.com

Uzbekistan Simplified the Procedure for Exporting Fruits and Vegetables

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Uzbekistan has simplified the exports of fruits and vegetables for farmers. The President of Uzbekistan signed a corresponding resolution. Under the document, private entrepreneurs received the right to export fruits and vegetables without prepayment, letters of credit, or bank guarantees from November 10, 2022, uzdaily.uz writes.

The President also abolished the requirement for individual entrepreneurs to insure an export contract against political and commercial risks. Recall that the authorities of the city of St. Petersburg (RF) plan to expand trade and economic ties with Uzbekistan, in particular, on the supply of fruits and vegetables. The governor of the city held talks on this and other issues with the head of the MIFT of Uzbekistan, Jamshid Khodjaev.

In turn, supplies of Uzbek fruits and vegetables to the Russian Federation may increase in the future. To this end, the establishment of a network of wholesale distribution centers is being worked out.

www.freshplaza.com

 

 

Despite the War, Ukraine Set a Record of Blueberries Exports in 2022

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Despite the invasion of the Russian occupation troops, the damage to part of the plantations in the central and northern regions of the country, Ukrainian growers increased blueberry exports in 2022 to a record high!

The total export of fresh blueberries from Ukraine in 2022 exceeded 2 500 tonnes, an increase of 1.5 times compared to 2021. The previous record for blueberry exports from Ukraine, reached in 2019, was exceeded by 11%. And this is even though there were no exports of blueberries in 2022 from Ukraine to Belarus, which was one of the main markets for Ukrainian blueberries until 2022.

Poland has traditionally been the main market for blueberries from Ukraine. In 2022, Poland imported 2.2 times more blueberries from Ukraine than in 2021, and the export volume reached 1 350 tonnes per season. Thus, more than 50% of all Ukrainian blueberries were sent to Poland. At the same time, Poland was only a transit point for blueberries from Ukraine to other EU countries, because the export of fresh blueberries from Poland many times exceeds the volume of blueberry exports from Ukraine.

Other major importers of blueberries from Ukraine – the Netherlands, the UK, and Moldova – also sharply increased their import volumes: by 80%, 68%, and 2.4 times, respectively. For the first time, wholesale batches of blueberries from Ukraine also went to Spain, Germany, Georgia, and Finland. However, to countries where blueberries were previously delivered by planes – the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Singapore, they were not exported due to Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.

www.east-fruit.com

‘Ukraine Will not Have Potato Shortage This Winter, Despite War’

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According to a statement from the Agriculture Ministry, Ukraine will not face a shortage of potatoes this winter, despite its refusal to import from Russia and Belarus. Ukraine traditionally imports potatoes from these two states, but it has halted all supplies after the Russian invasion. The Ministry said in a statement around 12 million tons of potatoes had already been harvested as of October 25, or 73% of an expected harvest of around 16.6 million tons. It gave no data for the 2021 harvest.

It said the 2022 area sown to potatoes had fallen by 36%, due to hostilities in many regions. Potatoes are the most widely consumed vegetable in Ukraine. Almost all potatoes in Ukraine are harvested by small households.

www.freshplaza.com

 

Moldova to Export Less Table Grapes Than Last Year

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Between August and mid-October, Moldova exported just over 17,000 mt of table grapes from the 2022 harvest. This is about the same as what was exported in the same period last year. As expected, Romania is the first in the TOP countries-importers of Moldovan table grapes – almost 5,700 mt, Kazakhstan is quite unexpectedly the second – more than 4,000 mt, the third is Ukraine with about 2,000 mt. The Belarusian and Russian markets, which in previous years were at the top of the list of importers of grapes from Moldova, received 1,700 mt and 724 mt, respectively.

Representatives of associations note with regret that in the current marketing year the country is exporting a much smaller volume of table grapes than last season (about 68,000 mt). Although the harvest of table grapes in 2022 in Moldova will be higher than in 2021 – more than 100,000 mt against 85,000 mt, the quality of grapes from the 2022 harvest, despite the drought, is also better than last year.

The main problem is that due to the Russian embargo, limited demand for Moldova table grapes in autumn, and a significant increase in electricity tariffs, according to expert forecasts, only about 20,000-25,000 mt of grapes will be stored in the country’s fruit storage facilities for sale in November-January. Last year, about 40,000 mt were stored for export during this period.

Unfortunately, according to fruit market participants, due to uncertain commercial prospects and increased storage costs, a significant proportion of medium and even high-quality Moldova grapes from vineyards is sent directly to wineries. At the same time, the purchase prices for industrial table grapes fell to the minimum level – 2 MDL/kg ($0.10/kg).

www.east-fruit.com

Despite Increased Quota Moldova Unlikely to Export More then 15-20,000 MT of Apples to EU

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Experts from non-governmental organizations and traders from the Republic of Moldova agree that the statement by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry MAIA on the possibility of exporting a record 50,000 mt of apples this season is “achievable, but unreasonably optimistic.”

According to east-fruit.com, the ministerial declaration was caused by two positive facts. Firstly, as has been repeatedly noted at all levels, the European Commission has doubled the quota for the export of Moldovan apples to the EU in the current marketing year – up to 80,000 mt. This should be considered an important incentive, primarily psychological. It can also be assumed that the EU authorities and the national governments of some countries also encourage European traders and retailers to cooperate with apple suppliers from Moldova. Secondly, this summer, Moldova exported approximately 2,000 mt of apples to Romania every month (while its total export to the European market from Moldova last year amounted to about 1,800 mt).

However, since the beginning of autumn, supplies of Moldovan apples to the European Union have dropped sharply. Even if we assume that Moldova will quickly pick up the “summer pace” of apple supplies to Romania in the second half of October and enter other European markets with small volumes, Moldovan traders may be able to export about 20,000 mt of apples by next summer. According to experts from farmers’ organizations, this will also be a very good result. Especially if we consider the high harvest of 2022 apples in many European countries, in particular, in Poland, and a low apple harvest in Moldova (according to an optimistic forecast – 480 000 mt, according to a pessimistic one – 380,000-400,000 mt).

Many horticultural enterprises gathered resources for timely and high-quality harvesting of apples in October, but, according to fruit market players, their storing is going rather slowly. And it is still unclear whether traders will accumulate the previously expected commodity volume of 100,000 mt of apples in fruit storages before the winter.

www.freshplaza.com

Ukrainian Apple Season 2022

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The Ukrainian apple season should be in full swing right now, but demand seems to be at a low point right now. On the growers’ side, some are opting to send all of their harvest toward processing facilities, to minimize both risks and costs as much as possible.

Volodymyr Gurzhiy of Ukrainian apple exporter USPA states that the war in Ukraine is just one factor in the very challenging season they’re currently in: “Every season is different, however, the season of 2022-2023 is going to be even more outstanding. The war in Ukraine brought a lot of changes and challenges, which affects all the markets considerably. For Ukrainian exporters, the most painful is the closed Belarusian market, as they had a significant share in our export in the previous seasons, skyrocketed energy costs, huge prices for packaging, and double and sometimes triple logistics cost compared to the same week of the previous year. I don’t think we are unique in all that circumstances in the whole of Europe; however, our logistics costs are enormously high. It’s going to be hard to compete until the Ukrainian ports are to be opened.” (more…)