Fishmeal & shrimp: Trading
No futures market, so traders watch soybean meal instead
What this tab covers How and where it is bought and sold: who buys and sells, exchanges and benchmarks, contract types, the big trading houses and how prices are discovered.Fishmeal has no futures market. Peruvian producers sell on negotiated contracts to feed millers in China and elsewhere, and trade reporters assess prices. Buyers watch DCE and CBOT soybean meal as the competing protein. Shrimp also trades off-exchange, through importer contracts and price reporters such as Urner Barry. Salmon is the exception, with Oslo-based futures, though most fish sell at weekly spot prices or on contract. Morgan shows Peruvians suspecting US catch forecasts of being used to depress fishmeal prices (pdf p. 306).
Where it is bought (buyers)
- US, Chinese, Japanese and EU importers and retailers buy frozen shrimp by the container from processors in Ecuador, India and Indonesia
- Feed mills in China, Norway, Vietnam and Japan buy fishmeal from Peru, Chile and Scandinavia
- European processors in Poland and elsewhere buy fresh Norwegian salmon for smoking and filleting
Where it is sold (sellers)
- Ecuadorian and Indian shrimp processor-exporters
- Norwegian and Chilean salmon farmers
- Peruvian and Chilean fishmeal producers
Exchanges and benchmarks
| Venue | Contract | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fish Pool (Euronext) | Salmon futures, cash-settled against the Fish Pool Index | the only established seafood futures market |
| None for shrimp or fishmeal | no liquid futures | priced by negotiation and price-reporting assessments |
| India | none | no Indian seafood futures |
Contract types
- Container-lot export contracts for frozen shrimp, CFR or CIF, by count size (pieces per lb)
- Fishmeal sales FOB Peru by protein grade
- Weekly spot and contract sales of fresh salmon
Top trading houses
- Large processor-exporters and importer-distributors dominate; Japanese trading houses and integrated groups such as Maruha Nichiro and Thai Union buy and sell across origins
How prices are discovered
- Fish Pool Index and Norwegian weekly export prices for salmon
- Expana (formerly Urner Barry) shrimp quotations
- World Bank fishmeal price series
- FAO GLOBEFISH market reports