The King & Snow crab market situation

Some of the world's most important kind and snow crab fisheries will be closed for the second season, including Alaska's Bristol Bay red king crab fishery and snow crab fishery (opilio) from the Barents Sea. It is already the fifth time in history and the second time in the last 25 years that the fishery will be closed.

The Alaska harvest is one of the most lucrative fisheries with an estimated loss last year of 200 million USD. The value of Opilio snow crab is worth 100 million USD.  Finding a replacement is going to be hard with the ban on Russian King Crab due to the invasion in Ukraine. In addition, prices of king crab have increased a lot over the past few years but also because the total allowable catch has been declining due to less biomass levels. The Norway king crab prices doubled last year and the TAC was set at 1930MT. This in combination with the fact that the US and Russia are the biggest producers of King Crab leads to a not very bright perspective for king crab supply.