Tom Seaman, editorial director of Undercurrent News, brings you a roundup of the main stories from the previous week.
The most-read story on the site last week was one from Maria Feijoo, on a Mexican firm planning a $10 million land-based shrimp farm. Aquaculture company Aqua DEGMEX is on its way to building its first indoor, small-scale shrimp recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) farm outside Monterrey, founder Diego Acosta told Maria.
The construction of the farm in northern Mexico will begin in early 2021 at a 100-hectare ranch some 15 minutes' drive from the city of Linares, he said. The initial investment will be around $10m.
"It will be carried out by the Mexico-based construction company Garza Ponce Group and will last between eight to nine months. This means we may be starting our first shrimp production in September or October next year," Acosta said.
The firm -- which aims to produce 250 metric tons of medium-to-large-sized vannamei shrimp per year by 2022 -- will be selling fresh, antibiotic‐free products under its new brand, Acuali, directly to consumers, restaurants and retailers in some of the biggest cities in northeast Mexico, starting with the market of Monterrey.
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Clearwater to sell two lobster licenses to First Nation in $18.9m deal
Canada's Clearwater Seafoods will sell two of its eight lobster licenses in a CAD 25m ($18.9m) deal with the Membertou First Nation, Clearwater said on Sept. 8.
The deal came out of a collaboration between the company and Membertou. It brings participation from the Mi’kmaq people into the offshore lobster fishery.
"Membertou is pleased to make this historic strategic investment in the sustainable and well-managed offshore lobster fishery," Membertou chief Terry Paul said. "It further strengthens our relationship with Clearwater, leverages their expertise in offshore fisheries, and builds value for our community and provides additional employment and growth opportunities for our people."
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UK removes key sustainability language from Brexit fisheries bill
The UK government has removed some of the language around sustainability from its fisheries bill, following a House of Commons vote on Sept. 8, Neil Ramsden reported.
Amendments introduced when the bill passed through the House of Lords earlier this year had included language to protect against short-term political decisions which might cause overfishing, and to make sustainability a prime objective.
These have now been stripped out again, UK environment lawyer Sarah Denman, with ClientEarth, told Neil during a webinar held by NGO Oceana.
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Jordan Mazzetta’s new lobster bait company looks to expand in Maine
Jordan Mazzetta's first foray into his own seafood enterprise after leaving his father’s long-established US processing and wholesale company is now just a little more than a year old, but he's looking to grow it, Jason Huffman reported.
JBR Maine, a Sebasco Estates, Maine-based supplier of lobster bait and buyer of lobster, seeks to add to the five wharf-based locations it has on the state’s rocky coast, Mazzetta told Jason last Thursday. The business, which is named for Jordan and his two business partners -- Brittany Willis and Rick Whitten -- was started in July 2019, roughly six months after he left the Highland Park, Illinois-based Mazzetta Company, as reported by Undercurrent.
Both Willis and Whitten joined Jordan Mazzetta from the Atwood Lobster Company, a South Thomaston, Maine-based lobster processor that is also a division of the Mazzetta Company and was earlier reported by Undercurrent as being involved in several court-related battles involving the parent business.
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Analysts don’t expect shrimp prices to rise any time soon
Despite the optimism of some small and medium farmers both in Ecuador and India, hoping the current vannamei shrimp price situation will improve in the coming months, a panel of analysts has expressed skepticism as to a fast rise in prices any time soon, Matilde Mereghetti reported.
Shrimp output from India and Indonesia is expected to rebound from this month onwards, with partial harvests in September and October expected to cause a surge in raw material output. This could affect prices in the short-term, according to Sophia Balod, a consultant with the Seafood Trade Intelligence Portal.
Balod also noted that global shrimp supply in 2020 will drop, since both Ecuadorian and Indian supplies have contracted. However, there has been also a significant reduction in consumption, which will likely continue in the coming months, she said, stressing that India and Indonesia were expected to ramp up their exports.
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Coldwater shrimp price seen trending upwards to year end, with sales moving nicely
Some recovery in the UK foodservice sector, and continued strong retail sales, lead several sources in the coldwater shrimp sector to expect prices on an upward trend through to the end of 2020, they told Neil Ramsden.
Sources with an important UK importer, and a major global producer, told Neil prices reached their lowest point in April 2020, largely thanks to the impact of the COVID-19-prompted lockdown of the UK.
A major part of the cooked and peeled shrimp market is that which goes for "manufactured" shrimp -- small sizes used widely in the UK's sandwiches and salads. The lockdown of offices and city centers essentially killed demand in this key part of the foodservice sector.
This had begun to improve by July, with foodservice orders in the UK at around 45% of 2019's levels -- up from 15% in April, said the importer. This took prices up 10-15% from their lowest point of £6.40 per kilogram (bulk) to £7.10/kg. The price gap between small, medium and large was marginal, he said at the time.
However, £7.10/kg remains down significantly on 2019's average £8.70/kg for the comparable specifications, he added. He feels prices should continue rising to around £7.60/kg by December, with retail sales "buoyant" and pubs, restaurants and sandwich bars reopening.
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Bangkok tuna prices backslide, eating into COVID-driven rise
Until recently, tuna prices had been some of the least hit by the coronavirus crisis compared to other species.
Grocers' sales of canned tuna spiked in the first few months of lockdowns across the world, offsetting a loss in demand from the restaurant and hotel sector. In the meantime, travel restrictions and containment measures slowed down tuna fishing and processing operations across the globe, supporting price levels, Matilde Mereghetti reported.
However, after a few months of increases, skipjack tuna prices in Bangkok, Thailand, have started to soften and could move further down in the coming months, market sources told Matilde.
"Bangkok [prices] are definitely heading down, with the $1,650/t last week being the ceiling. Right now, we are mostly at around $1,550/t, with the likelihood that we will be passing through $1,500/t and $1,450/t (an maybe lower) as we get towards October," a US-based source told Matilde.
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Can Ecuador maintain US market share as Indian shrimp shipments recover?
Ecuadorian shrimp exports to the US have grown in recent months, filling the void of shrimp shipments to the North American market from India, a country where the COVID-19 outbreak has frequently caused factories to cease production, Matilde Mereghetti reported.
Ecuador was able to increase its US market share at a time when its commercial relations with China have been tense and shrimp shipments have dropped. But will the Ecuadorian shrimp industry be able to remain a strong trading partner for the US buyers going ahead, as India and Indonesia recover their production? It remains to be seen, sources told Matilde.
Shrimp output from India and Indonesia is expected to rebound from this month onwards, with partial harvests expected in September and October expected to cause a surge in raw material output. This factor could affect prices in the short-term, according to the aforementioned Sophia Balod.
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Sanford CEO Volker Kuntzsch steps down after seven years
The CEO of New Zealand fishing and processing firm Sanford, Volker Kuntzsch, has resigned after seven years leading the company.
Chair Rob McLeod announced the news on Sept. 10, noting Sept. 18 would be Kuntzsch's last day.
He said Kuntzsch had made a transformational impact on Sanford. "Volker has helped transform Sanford into a progressive, values-based company with an outstanding commitment to environmental sustainability and to Sanford’s people. On behalf of the Sanford team, we are grateful to Volker for his leadership and thank him for a seven-year contribution as our chief executive."
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More seasoned seafood sales execs out at Hilton
UK-based meatpacker Hilton Food Group has parted company with more sales executives from its Grimsby-based seafood processing operation, formerly known as Seachill UK.
As Hilton continues to make changes at Hilton Seafood UK, as Seachill is now known, three seafood sales executives have left the business, sources told me. Two of the three, David Markham and Gary Newton, are longtime Seachill sales employees.
The third commercial executive to be let go is Craig Lister, who was managing the international sales for Hilton Seafood UK, including those under The Saucy Fish Co brand. Lister joined in 2018 from Anglo Beef Processors.
The exits leave Hilton Seachill UK with a sales team of three -- Chiara Catalano, Graham Evans and Tom Blades -- sources told me. The three are all listed on Linkedin as commercial managers. In July, Amanda Webb, the longtime Seachill sales director, also left Hilton.
Hilton -- which counts Tesco as its main UK customer but also has six plants across Europe, a joint venture (JV) in Australia, and another JV factory under construction in New Zealand -- is centralizing more functions from the seafood business to Huntington, where it's based, sources told me.
Click here for the full story.
September 14, 2020 at 03:36PM
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Editor's recap: Mexican shrimp RAS; Clearwater sells lobster licences; Brexit fisheries bill change - Undercurrent News
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