The United States needs to cut production and seek new trade restrictions on Russian goods. ASG CEO Einar Gustafsson made this call in an interview with Undercurrent News.
“The Russians… are aiming [выпуск] 200 thousand tons [сурими в год]”I understand that. But the best thing we can do is reduce production and put up trade barriers,” Gustafsson said.
This decision is necessary to withstand the fierce price competition from Russian fish producers. According to Gustafsson, they will capture the Asian market thanks to the lower price of surimi. “The Russians are in the way.” [торговой] “war,” the publication quotes ASG’s CEO as saying. The company is ready to use all its lobbying capabilities to demand restrictions on surimi from Russia, primarily in the EU and Japan. In particular, the ban on the supply of products made from Russian raw materials has already been introduced in the USA, and Gustafsson proposes extending it to the territory of the European Union.
According to Undercurrent News, Russian production of this type of product will more than double by 2028 – from the current 81 thousand tons to 163 thousand tons. This is comparable to the production of American surimi – 195 thousand tons in 2023. At the same time, American fishermen have already begun to reduce production – by 10% according to the results of the “A” season of pollock salmon.
American fish producers are suffering losses due to increased sales of surimi from Russia to Japan and falling prices, the publication writes. Russian fishermen supplied 12,000 tons of surimi to the country last year. The average export price in Japan fell by 26% in May to $2,159 per ton compared to the same period last year. In July in the EU, surimi cost between $2,200 and $2,400 per ton, while last year it cost twice as much.
“American surimi producers are losing in fair economic competition, their economy is limping and they are clinging to political crutches. They do not care about consumers, the main thing is to maintain their monopoly profits,” commented German Zverev, president of the All-Russian Association of Fishery Producers (VARPE). He recalled that Russia and the United States are the world’s leading pollock producers. So far, even despite endless trade barriers, Russia is ahead.
“Surimi and fillets are the two main products of the American pollock fishery. In some years, taking into account certain market and production factors, Americans can shift their focus in favor of one product. Last year, the United States produced 195 thousand tons of surimi pollock and 156 thousand tons of fillet,” notes the president of the Pollock Collectors Association Alexey Buglak.
The pollock surimi sector has historically been dominated by Americans, and Russia is a new player: the country only established industrial production in 2021. American fishermen simply refused and were not willing to be expelled, adds German Zverev.
According to Alexey Buglak, the key market for American surimi is Japan, but there is a slowdown in final demand and a sharp drop in prices (-30% this year), which is mainly due to the sharp devaluation of the Japanese yen. This year, surimi imports increased by 5.5 thousand tons, and surimi reserves in Japan increased by 6.5 thousand tons. In other Southeast Asian markets, it is evident that Russian surimi is beginning to displace American products. For example, if until 2021 the share of the United States in surimi supplies to the South Korean market was almost 100%, then in 2022 it decreased to 90%, and by the end of 2023 it fell to 60%. The situation is similar with surimi supplies to China.
Note that in recent months, Americans have increasingly called for restrictions on the supply of fish from Russia. Earlier, senators from the two largest fishing states in the United States, Alaska and Maine, called for a ban on the use of an international environmental certificate for Russian fisheries. This was preceded by a statement by Alaskan fishermen, in which they claimed that they were suffering losses due to the oversupply of cheap fish from Russia on the market. In mid-July, the Baltic countries accused Russian fishermen of fishing in the Baltic Sea during the closed season.
