Recently the raw material of Alaska Pollock is in good condition, but the problem is the transportation and processing part. Russia has a significant volume of Alaska pollock catching, and most of these raw materials will send to China to process into the product then export to the global market. Â
According to the distance between China and Russia, there is a convenient way to deliver the Alaska pollock raw materials. The catching vessels can directly ship the raw material to Dalian port instead of going back to Russia. So nearly 70% of the raw material will send to China to do the processing. Alaska pollock from Russia keeps this way of processing for the long term.
Nevertheless, in 2021, this cycle is almost over. At the end of 2020, due to the pandemic control, China banned direct seafood shipment from Russia to China. At that time, ten Russian vessels stayed at the border for over one month. Over 32 thousand tons of Alaska Pollock raw materials were ready to unload. The problem is about the virus. In 2020, the pandemic situation was difficult in Russia, and many workers in the vessels affect by the virus, especially those who need to carry the raw material to the storage.
Russia’s pandemic situation was terrible last year.
From 12:00 on September 26 to 10:40 on September 27, Moscow time, there were 7,867 new confirm cases in Russia, 3068 new recovery cases, 99 new deaths, and an increase of 4,700 existing confirmed cases. The pandemic situation was terrible at that moment. For these bulk raw materials to China, the virus affected a lot.
September 24, 2020
On September 24, the Qingdao port Dagang Company found 2 cases of asymptomatic infection with Covid 19. After the outbreak, Qingdao Port immediately launched an emergency plan to conduct nucleic acid testing and serum antibody testing on more than 20,000 employees in the entire port.
October 28, 2020
Nucleic acid positive for the new Covid 19 virus detected in samples of the outer packaging of aquatic products imported from 3 fishing vessels from Russia and cold storage in the Netherlands.
March 10, 2021
According to information from the General Administration of Customs of China, due to the detection of the virus in the outer packaging samples of imported fish products from Russia, the General Administration of Customs of China has taken emergency preventive measures against a Russian processing fishing vessel.
Russia seafood met issues for pandemic inspetion in China.
For Russia, Traces of COVID-19 have been detected in the products of four factories and 19 fishing vessels, and China has imposed emergency preventive measures to suspend imports for one to four weeks. Among them, the problem of pollock products is particularly prominent. China has tightened import restrictions on Russian seafood, affecting white fish suppliers who bring raw materials into processing centers in Dalian and Qingdao.
At the same time, Russian general cargo ships have banned from entering Dalian and Qingdao for unloading. And Russian companies have had to ship the vessels to Busan and Vladivostok. However, the Alaska pollock from Busan without the new health certificate and the new catching certificate could not pass Chinese customs. This action caused further chaos in the market. The supply of Alaska pollock is in a disorder, and the raw materials in the processing plants are in a huge shortage.
For these catching vessels cannot directly ship to China, after sending to Busan and Vladivostok, the factory needs to repack into packs and then into containers. This will increase the cost of the raw material. Furthermore, they need to do the prevention sterilization work. All these measures will make the period for the processing factories to receive the raw material is much longer. Although local Russian plants are trying to expand their processing capacity, covering almost 70% of raw material to China is impossible. Because of that, the catching of Alaska pollock forced to reduce. Since there is not enough storage capacity for the raw material in Russia in a short time.
New raw material gradually arrived at the factory in China, but still far away from the actual demand
Recently, some of the factories in China already received raw materials from Russia. The EU market and USA market are in massive demand for APO products. These 2021 raw materials sell fast, and the factories are full of orders. The price of Alaska pollock has increased a lot; it is about 26.4% higher than in August. 2020. About the storage condition, most of the factories have some stock of 2020. Moreover, for the 2021 new raw materials, they gradually come out of the custom, but the process is slow.Â
What’s the market trend yet?
For the market trend, since the demand is high, it is almost impossible for the price to go down. The raw material situation is difficult to release quickly because the pandemic situation in China is serious again. For the logistic condition, although some of the ports announced that they were starting to speed up the clearance. Ocean Treasure predicted that it would take at least one month then the clearance might be normal. Since that many containers had stocked in the port for over a month,
