Daily 2019 - 7 mai 2019 - 7

White fish under pressure

T R E N D S
THE FRENCH TOUCH
The French arrive in force at the Seafood
Excellence Global Awards with seven companies
selected out of 25. Crustacook revisits acras with
giant squid. Escal also offers squid, but glutenfree and with a Roman style recipe. Freshpack
presents a crispy shrimp and vegetable crunch.
On the fish side, Fournier & Fils offers smoked
cod in trays. GlobeXplore makes a salmon
terrine with dulse and ginger. Guyader
Gastronomie designs a salmon steak and
JC David smokes lean fish.

L.F.

ASIAN FLAVOURS
This year, the Malaysians of Golden Fresh are
presenting four products: pickled cod, fried fish
burger, shrimp in sauce, squid with Himalayan
salt and nori. From South Korea, Hee Chang
Trading launches a fish sausage and Sewha
Seafood makes seaweed crunchy and associates
it with almonds.

White fish is a key raw material for the processing industry, with cod in the lead.

Imports are essential to Europe - The
European Union is the world's leading
trader for fisheries and aquaculture products, ahead of China. Indeed, its low
rate of self-sufficiency, around 42%,
requires it to rely heavily on imports
from third countries. This is particularly
the case for white fish, for which its
level of dependence on imports reaches
89%, with apparent consumption of
more than 3 million tons (live-weight
equivalent). A key raw material for the
processing industry, with cod in the
lead, followed by Alaskan pollock and
hake, and much further on, haddock,
saithe, rockfish and hoki. But while
China, followed by Norway, the United
States, Russia and Iceland, remains the
EU's largest supplier of whitefish, it
now accounts for only 22% of imported quantities. The relocation of first
processing plants observed over the last
10-15 years is tending to reverse.

Prices on the increase on key species At the beginning of the year, the industry
was clearly concerned about the soaring
prices of cod fish blocks recorded over
the last months. Despite the reduction

in quotas, the scarcity of the species is
not the cause, but rather the relative
relocation of processing. Norwegians,
for example, want to make better use
of their raw materials, processing loins
and fillets... and this also applies to fish
trimmings. Similarly, in 2017, the United
States exported towards the EU almost
as many Alaska pollock cuts as China.
At the time at their lowest level, prices
rose sharply in 2018, due to the dollar
effect, and then to speculative phenomena induced by the announcement of
a potential reduction in quotas. Another
cause for concern. Cod and Alaska pollock alone account for more than 67%
of global wild white fish quotas. Finding
sufficient replacement species in sufficient volume is unrealistic.

A dearer surimi base - In 2017, world
surimi base production was about
820,000 tons. However, the quantities
of tropical species in China and Vietnam, i.e. around 480,000 tons, fell by
30,000 tons as a result of the scarcity
of raw material. As a result, prices have
risen, due to the continued growth in
consumption of finished surimi products

in South-East Asia. At the global level,
after three years of balanced supply and
demand, the decline in production has
since resulted in a price increase by 5 to
10% from one season to the next. Despite large quantities, the Alaskan pollock
surimi base is unable to meet demand.
This upward trend is expected to continue, due to strong global demand for
Alaskan pollock blocks, which competes
with surimi production. Especially since
fishing quotas for the species are expected to fall in the coming years, both in
the USA and Russia.
Anne-Caroline RENARD

3
67
820,000
Mt consumed
in the EU.

% of the cod and Alaska
pollock quotas.
t of
surimi
base.

THE KING SALMON
Indispensable, salmon is available
in flambé and gravlax for the Finns
of Hätälä. The British John Ross Jr.
pays tribute to royal weddings with rum
smoked salmon! The Scottish St. James
Smokehouse presents the Saint Pure Salmon
and The Scottish Salmon Company,
the Tartan Label Rouge. In Belgium,
Viciunai boosts it by adding honey
and pollen.

CREATIVE PLANET
The world tour continues with spreads, with the Ocean Spread
from Amacore (Netherlands) and the mashed smoked
mackerel mix from Keohane's Seafood (Ireland).
Italy has concocted seafood salads, with cereals for Fiorital and vegetable for Medusa.
The Spaniards of Nueva Pescanova
do shrimp on skewers and in "fiesta"
mode. In Estonia, PRFoods cooks rainbow trout. In Belgium, Shore, the crustacean specialist, is launching flavoured sachets. The Danes of Vilsund Blue cook their blue
mussels in Thai curry and spicy sauce. The Dutchmen of
Kingfish Zeeland offer a range of portions of amberjack.

BOULOGNE-SUR-MER
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Stand 509
7-9/05/2019

©afssa

TUESDAY 7 MAY, 2019

Daily 2019 - 7 mai 2019

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