Peru cuts supply, domestic sun-drying, sales of "little squid ears" soar!

One, Peru's supply cut, small-sized squid in distress

First, we need to look at the source—Peru. As one of the world's largest squid production areas, Peru achieved a record total output this year, but small-sized squid have almost disappeared. Fishermen are focusing on catching medium to large-sized giant squid (Dosidicus gigas), causing "small ears" raw materials to become scarce.

Therefore, the current market's imported squid ears almost entirely rely on inventory, in a state of "inventory competition." "The more is imported, the more there is in the domestic market, and selling a bit reduces it." Industry insiders bluntly stated that under this quantitative sales model, the short-term imbalance in supply and demand has driven prices up.

Two, structural shortage: more squid tubes with ears, fewer pure split products

Second, the import structure of the domestic market has also changed this year. Compared to previous years when large quantities of split ears were imported, this year's imports mainly consist of squid tubes with ears and de-viscerated raw strips. Since these types of products are already standardized in the processing stage in Peru, the proportion of splitting has decreased, leading to a sharp reduction in imported sources that can directly enter the small squid ear market.

In other words, "more finished products, fewer ears," which further tightens the squid ear supply chain.

Three, drying fields start up, downstream demand warms up

Meanwhile, drying fields in areas such as Shidao, Shandong, have fully started up, and Zhoushan region has also begun to launch drying and processing. The concentrated start-up of drying factories and ear slice processing factories means that downstream demand is recovering.

Industry insiders revealed that this concentrated start-up of demand has caused the originally limited imported ears to quickly flow into the processing stage, forming a "supply cannot meet demand" situation, naturally pushing prices up.

Four, the quality advantage of imported ears becomes prominent, cost-effectiveness surpasses domestic products

Besides the supply and demand relationship, product characteristics are also key. Compared to domestic ears, imported ears have higher freshness, uniform specifications, more uniform weight, lower processing loss, and are suitable for large-scale production.

Although imported ears are slightly higher in price, their overall cost-effectiveness is better. Especially in export-oriented orders with high freshness requirements, imported ears are more popular. Industry analysis suggests that this quality advantage makes imported ears more competitive when there is a market shortage, and also accelerates this round of sales boom. (Article compiled from Xiao Dou Sells Squid)