**June Feature** ICYBAY Baby Clam Meat ICYBAY meat is versatile, mild flavored and medium texture with excellent plate coverage. ICYBAY clam meat is all natural with no hormones, no antibiotics and no additives, which makes them sweet and a better choice that canned clam meat. Year round availability and supply allows for consistent quality, size and steady price. The great taste and affordability makes it a great alternative to fresh clams. Baby Clam meats are sand free, 50% meat and 50% juice is a better yield than canned clam meat packs Call your Slade Gorton representative today for more information! Species Calamari Catfish Chilean Sea Bass Market Activity Loligo prices continue to remain steady and supply continues to remain stable. The todarodes season has ended and will start again at the end of July/early August. Anticipate shortages of certain Todarodes products as suppliers replenish their inventories once the season resumes. Domestic Catfish new crop fish is beginning to come in and there should be ample supply by late June. Many processors are still tight on supply so market prices may not drop over the next few months. Chinese Catfish prices are up, the domestic consumption is strong & season is over until August. The seabass market, including H+G as well as value added products such as fillets and portions, is stable with an underlying tendency for the market to strengthen. Antarctic toothfish from the Ross Sea, the largest single fishing zone, is moving well through the sales channels. As product from this fishery is consumed, it will leave only the higher priced traditional eleginoides specie to meet the demands of the market.
Cod The market continues to show strength, especially on Atlantic cod, as raw material prices increase. The market undertone is firm. We expect stronger prices later this year. Crab Crawfish Dungeness. Still nothing to offer in the way of Clusters. Whole cooks remain the only option at the current time. King Crab. Market continues to be soft. Continue to recommend only buying as needed. Snow Crab. Market remains stable on 5/8oz. There may be some good opportunites on loads of 8/10oz. Production is in full swing. The Alaskan 5/8oz Snow Crab market is currently selling at same price levels on the West Coast asn the Canadian is on the East Coast. Jonah Crab. Product remains avaliabe in all forms. Prices are stable. Still continues to be the Good value alternative. Red Crab. Slade Gorton continue to have a good supply of meat products both combo and leg meat at very good prices. The market for whole cooked crawfish is quiet with unsettled replacement costs from China. The tail meat market is steady. Indications are for slightly higher prices this year since there are excepted to be fewer containers of tail meat produced this year. Grouper 6/8oz remains short for the time being. Restock should be in the next few weeks. All other sizes are in inventory. There continues to be some bargains to be had on off sizes. Haddock No change in haddock. Replacement cost is high. Producers are unwilling to speculate on higher priced raw material inventories unless the product is presold. Summer haddock raw material is typically avoided by producers which may impact the market late this summer with fewer fillets available for sale in the USA.
Lobster, Canadian New season product from Canada has arrived and will continue to fill a somewhat under supplied market. Tail prices on smaller sizes, 4-5's and smaller, are expected to slightly moderate. Production from Maine should commence in earnest in July which is later than usual due to colder water temperatures this year. The market for knuckle and claw and knuckle, claw and leg is steady. Lobster, Warm Water All prices for ww tails are up, especially on 8 oz. due to short supplies. The trend will continue upward till June-July/2014. The Brazilian season opens in June/2014 and the Caribbean by July/2014. Mahi-Mahi Mussels Central and So. American Mahi. Prices are stable. There are some cheaper offerings on Taiwan, Indonesian and Vietnam product out in the Market. Watch for the percentage of tails in the box. We believe Central and South American to be superior to these other products. New Zealand Mussel: Farming is about to shut down until new season in September. A growing global demand will likely mean supply shortages. Chilean Mussels: Supply problems persist and demand is exceptionally good for this product. The market is steady with a continued firm undertone. Octopus The Philippines octopus heavy catching is from May through August and slow season from Sep to April. Short of 6/8ct. Indonesian heavy catching is from November to January and slow production from February to October. Tight supplies with slighty higher prices than two months ago. Oysters Supply on both fresh & frozen oysters will be tight through the summer of 2014 and we can expect higher prices for what will be available. Several factors are contributing to the shortage; a)excess fresh water released on the Oyster beds, b) we are currently in a low cycle for harvesting in general and c) a new FDA regulation on time & temperature between harvesting & landing at the processing plants.
Pollock Supplies are adequate for pollock fillets in a currently steady market. Salmon Scallops Farmed Atlantic Salmon. Demand has slowed while supply has increased slightly. There has been some forced harvests in Europe that pushed excess fresh inventory to the US. June is showing some reduced prices. US frozen inventory is adequate as Chile has steady production. Wild Salmon. US production for 2014 is forecasted to run lower than 2013. Bay Scallops Peruvian market will stay strong through the summer. The arrival of El Nino could affect water temperatures & supply. Sea Scallops the fishing year started March 1 but the final measures on allowable catch have not yet been implemented for the year. Vessels have been fishing days only, starting in June they will have allocations into access areas. Shrimp Asian Shrimp. After 3 months of declining prices, demand is beginning to pick up with major Retail & Foodservice customers in the US. The market is close to bottoming out and with added domestic consumption in Asia, prices will stabilize and begin to move upward. EMS still plaques Vietnam & Thailand. Early harvests and crop failures continue. Large sizes are still difficult source. 16/20 Cooked is very scarce. However, middle sizes may continue to be a value moving forward. Sole/Flounder Latin American Shrimp. Prices are dropping in order to stimulate the buying interest. On the other side, the Asian heavy season started in May/2014, which will make the buyers to hold purchase until they see reasonable prices in the market. Ocean Caught Mexican Shrimp (Blue Shrimp; White Shrimp; Brown Shrimp). Short supplies with higher prices. U/12 & U/15 have firm prices. Gulf Domestic Shrimp. Prices are steady. There is no change in the flat fish market for yellow fin and rockfish fillets. Large sizes, including 7-8 oz's, remain short. Fillets, 4 oz's and smaller, remain the best value and are available in quantity for promotion, both here in the USA and in China.
Swai Tilapia Tuna Significant quantities of pangasius arrived into the USA in March prior to the recent customs duty ruling. This was followed by a sharp drop off in imports in April and May. As the in- country inventory is consumed, prices are expected to firm later this summer. In the interim, prices which had increased slightly a month ago, are steady. High prices in the US have slowed consumption to some degree. Speculation and forward looking supply looks to be softening but it will be a slow translation. Replacement cost on 3-5 oz. IQF has been stable for the past month at $2.38 to $2.42/lb. FOB. Urner Barry price indicators have not moved since December despite higher raw material costs at the farm and plant level. Prices should remain stable until July. Large fish for 7-9 oz. shallow skinned fillets and 5-7 oz. Fully Deep Skinned fillets are still very hard to source. There should be some relief by the end of July. Southeast Asian Tuna market stregthening. Central and So American tuna starting to show up but seem to be offering at the same price levels. That may change if the catch picks up. Whiting New production whiting will arrive in June into an under-supplied market. Prices are firm as producers switch to shrimp and croaker fish which provide better returns for the vessels.