Business Week -- Global supply of Atlantic salmon will decline the most in two decades this year after a virus decimated output in Chile, bolstering the steepest advance in Norwegian prices since at least 2000.

The harvest will drop 5 percent to 9 percent, the first “significant” decline since 1990, said Joergen Christiansen, a spokesman for Oslo-based Marine Harvest ASA, the world’s largest salmon farmer. Norwegian export prices for fresh salmon rose 14 percent to 34.88 kroner ($5.86) a kilogram (2.2 pounds) this year, according to Statistics Norway.

Salmon output in Chile, the second-biggest source, may slide 38 percent this year, the national industry association said last month. The volume of fish harvested in Chile plunged 65 percent in the fourth quarter, Marine Harvest said Feb. 10. Fish farms in the country have been hurt by outbreaks of infectious salmon anemia.

“The main explanation behind the strong salmon prices is the dramatic supply fall from Chile,” said Aslak Berge, an analyst at First Securities ASA in Oslo. “Given that Atlantic salmon is among the world’s most rapidly growing food industries, the fall has boosted prices.”

David Kerstens, an analyst at UBS AG in Amsterdam, last week raised his forecast for 2010 Norwegian export prices by 13 percent to 34 kroner. Global prices will average 32.5 kroner this year, according to the median estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Companies such as Marine Harvest and Oslo-based competitor Cermaq ASA should benefit.

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Source:

Business Week. “World salmon supply to drop most since 1990 on virus,” http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-24/world-salmon-supply-to-drop-most-since-1990-on-virus-update1-.html; 24 Feb. 2010.