Downsizing leads to a 10% drop in market price

The peak fishing season for chub mackerel (over 250 grams per fish) in the waters off Kyushu by the West Japan Purse Seiner fleet (large and medium-sized) is drawing to an end. This month's (1st to 18th) catches were as good as the same period last year, but the fat content has dropped slightly. Sources in the fishing area say, "We're finally nearing the end of the fishing season. From March, we expect to shift to focusing on yellowtail."

This month's combined catch of the fish in Nagasaki City, Matsuura City in Nagasaki Prefecture, Karatsu City in Saga Prefecture, and Fukuoka City was approximately 44,000 boxes (each box weighing approximately 16 kg), a good catch on par with the same period last year. Source: Minato-Yamaguchi

The salmon farming industry is gearing up for the first of the big seafood conferences, which launches next week.

There will be plenty for them to discuss, with renewed concerns over President Trump’s latest tariff tactics and the general state of the market.

The three-day North Atlantic Seafood Forum (NASF), run by Pareto Securities, which opens in Bergen on Monday, is recognised as the world’s leading conference for senior executives in the global seafood industry.

Each year in the first week of March, more than 1,000 CEOs, experts, investors, and analysts gather in the coastal city for three days of discussion, offering insight and inspiration.

Author: Vince McDonagh / Fish Farmer | Read the full article here

EU-funded initiative named MULTIPLY is uniting 17 partners to develop 10 microalgae-based alternatives for everyday products, aiming to reduce reliance on fossil and food-based resources. 

Launched in June 2025, the Horizon Europe project brings together specialists from across Europe to develop and scale ten microalgae-based solutions for five industrial sectors.MULTIPLY is developing ten products designed to show how algae can serve diverse markets: 

• Food: natural colours and protein-rich ingredients
• Feed: a salmon feed component enriched with microalgal compounds
• Cosmetics: personal-care oils and esters
• Lubricants: bio-based esters engineered for high-performance applications
• Biomaterials and packaging: compostable films, paper coatings and other packaging solutions based on algal oils and starch. 

Source: The Fish Site | Read the full article here

Lerøy Seafood Group  reports $56.4 million farming EBIT in Q4 as prices improve late in quarter.

Lerøy reported operational EBIT of NOK 564 million ($56.4 million) in its farming segment in the fourth quarter of 2025, down year-on-year, but said biological performance was better than expected and production costs declined quarter-on-quarter.

The company said salmon and trout prices improved significantly towards the end of the quarter following a year characterised by low market prices.

Source: SalmonBusiness | Read the full article here

Vladivostok – According to the Primorsky branch of Rosselkhoznadzor, from January 1 to February 18, 2026, approximately 7 600 tons of live crab were exported from Primorsky Krai to China and the Republic of Korea.

Veterinary experts carried out safety assessments for 255 shipments, confirming compliance with import standards in both countries. The consignments included spiny crab, blue crab and Kamchatka crab, all harvested in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan and cleared with the necessary health certificates before shipment.

Russian crab remains in high demand across East Asia: overall exports to China in **2025 reached about 45 800 tons, up 10.4 % year-on-year, giving Russia over a 34 % share of China’s crab imports.

Industry data also show that revenue from Russian crustacean exports grew in 2025, with live and fresh crabs accounting for a significant portion of total export earnings, especially in China and South Korea.

Despite broader geopolitical tensions and past enforcement actions against illegal crab trade in the Russian Far East, regulated exports continue to expand in legitimate channels under strict veterinary control. Rosselkhoznadzor says all current shipments meet the importing countries’ sanitary and phytosanitary norms.

Maruha Nichiro Corporation will change its corporate name to "Umios Corporation" on March 1, 2026.

In conjunction with this change, the following group companies will also adopt new corporate names. The group will unify its name under the "Umios" brand, featuring a brand symbol composed of the BLUE PLANET mark and the Umios logotype. This unified brand identity will enable us to provide consistent customer experiences and reinforce trust across markets, thereby maximizing the global value of the Umios brand.