Canned Salmon Sales and Price

For ease of discussion, all can sizes are converted to a single measure: 48-tall case equivalent. The 48-tall case equivalent captures production and sales volume of all four standard can sizes for canned pink and canned sockeye.

 

Discussion of canned salmon sales and price follows the ���sales season��� which begins in September of the harvest year and ends in August of the following year. This is consistent with the production season for canned salmon and with reporting periods for the Alaska Salmon Price Report. The 2008 sales season began September 1, 2008 and will end August 31, 2009.

 

The May-August 2008 ASPR completes the canned salmon data set for the 2007 sales season.

 

Canned Sockeye Sales & Price

Canned sockeye sales volume has remained steady over the last five sales seasons, between 1.07 million and 1.29 million cases. Sales volume from the 2007 sales season falls near the upper end of that range at slightly under 1.2 million 48-tall case equivalent.

 

In the 2007 sales season, two-thirds of canned sockeye sales volume (64 percent) was sold in half-pound (7.5-ounce) cans and one-third (32 percent) in tall (14.75-ounce) cans.

 

Average first wholesale case price per 48-half case remained steady in the $61-$62 range throughout the 2007 sales season, the third consecutive year of stable prices in the low-$60 range. Average case price per 48-tall rose throughout the sales season, from $96 during September-December to $105 during May-August, a 5-year high for tall reds.

 

Canned Pink Sales & Price

Canned pink sales volume recovered to more typical levels in the 2007 sales season, rebounding from a sharp decline in the 2006 sales season. Total canned pink sales volume for the 2007 sales season was 2.7 million 48-tall case equivalent, up from 1.9 million cases the previous year.

 

The sharp decline in 2006-season sales volume was driven at least in part by a substantial recovery in wholesale prices for canned pink salmon. The increased prices of the 2006 sales season followed a prolonged period of unusually low prices and were thought to have dampened sales volume.

 

Canned pink wholesale prices increased further during the 2007 sales season, from the $54 - $55 range up to $58.95 for the May-August period, a 15-year high point for canned pinks. But despite the price increases, sales volume recovered to 2.7 million cases, just slightly under the 5-year average of 2.8 million. Sales volume of 665,000 cases for May-August 2008 is slightly above the 5-year average of 612,000 for the period and suggests that current market demand is not significantly constrained by continued firming of canned pink wholesale values.