The tight supply of squid in Europe and the United States has intensified, and the price has doubled

The industry generally believes that supply chain pressure may not ease in the short term.

Author/ Louis Harkell

Compilation / Hu Luyi

Recently, the imported squid market in Europe and the United States has fallen into a distortion, on the one hand, after the relaxation of COVID-19 control measures, ushered in a rapid rebound in food and beverage demand; On the other hand, the cost of international freight has risen sharply, the labor shortage of import and export enterprises, and the decline in output; Coupled with the complexity and particularity of the squid product supply chain itself, the imbalance between supply and demand seems to be infinitely magnified.

Frank Ruggiero, vice president of New Jersey importer Ruggiero Seafood, told UCN: "Recently, the Squid market in the United States has been almost crazy, and companies are not only facing rising costs, but also bearing the pressure of tariffs in the Sino-US trade war. ”

Even in the United States, cold chain transportation is a big problem. "Whereas in the past it would take three or four days to unload goods from a U.S. port to be shipped into cold storage, it now takes a week, or even two. On the last day that the container was unloaded from the port, the truck driver went back to pick up the goods, and even if it was sent to the cold storage, it was not the first time to enter the warehouse, because all the warehouses were full and you had to wait for a few more days. ”

"Compared to other meats, the price of squid is not too high. We learned that China's processing plants are also difficult, young people are reluctant to engage in seafood processing, and processing plants can only reduce production capacity, which means that the cutting of squid is left to the chefs in American restaurants. Ruggiero said.

In Europe, the squid market is also facing a dilemma. An Italian importer said the price of Chinese gun squid has been rising, with whole fish of 14-18cm size rising to $11.00/kg (delivered in Italy), almost double that of the beginning of last year.

"I've never seen such an outrageous price! China, Vietnam and India are all producing less than ideally, and freight costs have been rising, with prices per container sent from China and Vietnam to Europe rising to $15,000 and Indian containers rising to $11,000. ”

A person in charge of Yantai Five Star Food Co., Ltd. said that due to the high production of Argentine squid this year, the output inside and outside the line is close to 600,000 tons, which has formed a certain buffer for the overall price of the squid market. "Since the second half of the year, the production of real squid has fluctuated. In August, the government allowed some fishing vessels that met the conditions to go to sea early, the quota was 10,000 tons, and on September 1, all fishing boats officially started fishing, the initial situation was quite ideal, but since mid-September, the catch has dropped significantly, and the price of real squid has a rising trend. ”

"In normal years, the annual production of real squid is about 150,000 tons. This year, production will be greatly affected by North Korea (which is not allowed to enter Chinese fishing boats). He added.

Ruggiero said, "Recently we have exchanged with industry insiders, and the general view is that supply chain pressure is likely not to be effectively alleviated in a short period of time. They don't expect to return to normal until mid-2022, but I think that's likely to continue for another year. ”