Salmon virus tilts scales in favour of British Columbia

Brenda Bouw
February 25, 2010
The Globe and Mail 

A virus that devastated the Chilean salmon industry is driving up global prices, bringing an unintended boon to British Columbia's embattled farmed-salmon business.

Salmon spot prices have nearly doubled in the past year, following a sharp drop in global supply because of the outbreak of infectious salmon anemia in Chile, the world's second-biggest source.

But the benefits for British Columbia, the fourth-largest producer globally, will go only so far because of a recent moratorium on the expansion of fish farms in the province.

That could mean even higher salmon prices in the months ahead, as global salmon supply is expected to fall this year for the first time in almost a decade.

Spot salmon prices averaged $4.33 (U.S.) a pound in January in the United States, compared with $2.77 at the same time last year, according to New Jersey-based Urner Barry Publications Inc., which tracks market prices of fish and other foods. Prices hit a 52-week high of $4.55 on Feb. 9.

The salmon spot price is a benchmark based on a two-to-three-pound fresh, farmed Chilean Atlantic salmon fillet sold in the United States.

Read the full story in The Globe and Mail

Read related stories:

• The Courier Islander; February 26, 2010; "Chilean farmed salmon epidemic a prime reason to go 'closed' - NDP"
• BusinessWeek.com; February 24, 2010; "World Salmon Supply to Drop Most Since 1990 on Virus" 
• The Globe and Mail; February 17, 2010; "Canada eyes bigger salmon market share"