The US salmon market has returned to normal after the supply disruption caused by civil unrest in Chile.

“Things have gradually over the past two weeks been getting back to normal and now it seems pretty much back to business as usual,” Multiexport Foods General Manager USA Jason Paine told IntraFish.

BluGlacier CEO Sebastian Goycoolea agrees. “Everything is back to normal,” he said.

Estimates vary on how much volume in the US market was lost and by how much prices increased, which could possibly reflect the patchy nature of supplies after the situation became an issue.

“I think they varied by 50 percent or more for most of them and then gradually getting back, and some even worse at certain times during the weeks where you couldn’t get product out on certain days,” Paine said.

At the height of the Chile crisis salmon was fetching around 20 percent more than before it began in Paine’s view.

But Goycoolea saw the losses during the crisis differently.

“Probably 15 to 25 percent of the volumes were off. Not the 50 percent we were expecting at the beginning,” he said.

Not a game changer

Norwegian producers saw higher than normal interest from the US market during the period, but the episode is unlikely to be a game changer for exports from the Scandinavian country.

“There were some extra shipments made, but it appears that it hasn’t made a major shift in the overall exports in total so far,” Norway Seafood Council USA Director Egil Ove Sundheim said.

Although supply is coming back on, there is currently not the demand to soak it up, putting pressure on prices.

The US market now enters the worst two weeks of demand before the Thanksgiving holiday.

“This is Turkey season,” Sunheim said.

The market may see a pick up in demand for salmon-based appetizers for the festive period, but that is unlikely to offset sales lost to Americans favored form of poultry meat.

“Probably we are going to see some soft markets for a couple weeks but we expect to a recovery at the end of the year,” Goycoolea said.

Marketplace

US salmon market returns to normal after Chile crisis