Norwegian salmon prices slump

Norway’s salmon companies may be celebrating record export revenues for last month, but prices from the start of June have been dropping like a stone.

According to Statistics Norway, which monitors prices on a regular basis they fell by NOK 13.17 or almost £1 to NOK 104.90 a kilo (£7.75) last week. This represents a drop of 11.2% over a seven day period.

This is the lowest figure for fresh salmon since the middle of January this year and some people believe they may still have further to go.

Price levels are now a long way from the 2024 peak of NOK 123 a kilo (£9.09) just after Easter, when many people thought they might go even higher.

The better news is that export volumes are not just holding up, but have increased significantly last week to 15,060 tonnes, the highest total since the start of the year.

In contract frozen salmon prices went up to NOK 92.19 per kilo last week on a higher volume of 564 tonnes.

It may be too early to tell if the sharp drop in fresh-chilled prices is just a blip or part of a long term trend, but the Norwegian trade press is reporting that they may still have further to go and the next set of weekly figures could be worse. There has also been an increase in the amount of superior fish coming onto the market.

Salmon prices have been erratic since Easter. They fell sharply before the big Barcelona seafood fair, but then came back again after the event when business returned to normal.