April 2nd, 2018 - In this week's episode we will review the Flounder markets.

As the North American market is well aware by now, the twice frozen Flounder market has been extremely short since last November, when Raw materials began to be in short supply. Comparing the first 11 weeks of the calender year for 2017 and 2018, we can see the overall Flounder catch for Flathead, Rock, and Yellowfin Sole is down by 16.6 million pounds year-to-year. Yellowfin Sole is the lionshare of harvests at 43.5 million pounds as of March 17th, down 14 percent from the same time in 2017. The first two weeks in March saw decent landings of Yellowfin which will hopefully be a continued trend. Raw Material pricing has strengthened throughout this, with large sized yellowfin around $1900 per metric tonne last fall, reaching $2200 this month. We spoke to Chinese processors about the Raw Material situation and they anticipate new product to reach China by the end of April for fillet production throughout May.

The fillet recovery on Flounder species in the Round is about 25 percent, so with 16.6 million pounds less fish equates to nearly 4 million pounds of skinless boneless fillets missing in the market. Twice frozen fillet pricing is 60 cents per pound higher at the moment, compared to last April. While processors wait to secure materials for contracts, we expect price volatility to continue. Newest offers for skinless boneless 3-5oz fillets will put prices in the range of $2.80 to $2.90 per pound, which we predict will hit the market by May.