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The extent of the decline in farmed salmon prices is uncertain in the coming week, largely because of huge uncertainty surrounding logistics of getting product to market.

"There are enormous challenges with logistics especially airfreight," an exporter told IntraFish. "There are cancellations all the time."

An increasing number of countries have closed their borders to help control the spread of the coronavirus, and with more and more flights grounded, fresh seafood from Norway is facing a logistics nightmare.

Freight, in theory, is unaffected by most of the border closures, but since most of the seafood transported by airplanes is normally carried by regular passenger aircraft, problems remain.

"It's all about securing and minimizing risk since we don't want to risk getting orders cancelled and being left with unsold fish," another exporter said.

"Or we have to dump the price and sell at a huge loss."

Several industry players said it was too early to give details on next week's prices.

"I tried to buy at NOK 55 (€4.50/$4.80) per kilo for the three kilo weight class in Oslo but cash was rejected," one exporter told IntraFish.

"Moreover, this level is too high to sell to European customers and there is very little air freight available, therefore there is no trade."

The exporter said it is "very risky" to buy fish to be sent via aircraft, even if customers are willing to pay more, since flight cancellations are a risk.

Average prices for next week will end somewhere between NOK 55 ($4.80) and NOK 55 (€4.50/$4.80) per kilogram, exporters said -- a bit less than this week.

"The fall in Norwegian kroner is helping to curb the fall in prices," the exporter said.

One executive at a salmon processor reported large gaps in price expectations, hearing prices between NOK 50 (€4.10/$4.40) and NOK 60 (€5.00/$5.30) per kilogram.

Many clients are trying to reduce the volume of the contracts they have, the processor said.

"The US market is essentially closed and it is Europe that applies," the processor said.

"Many people talk about the market in Asia being good. It maybe true, but there is almost no transport capacity there, so it doesn't matter that much now."

The processor is more concerned about securing volume, calling the situation a "buyer's market."

Several industry players have also had challenges with banking and credit insurance due to the coronavirus situation and the large exchange rate fluctuations.