AN oversupply of eels destined for the Chinese market is causing prices to fall, an official from the country’s main fishery export association warned on July 24.

U Soe Tun Shein, chairman of the Myanmar Fishery Products Processors and Exporters Association (MFPEA), said there were too many eels being offered at auctions at the Shan State border town of Muse, where Chinese traders come to buy fish.

“Current demand for eels at Muse is about 40 tonnes a day, but there are about 50 to 60 tonnes of eels arriving at the market every day,” U Soe Tun Shein said at a weekly gathering of fishery sector leaders in Yangon.

“If the market is flooded, it’s likely the price for eel will decrease,” he said.
The current floor price for eel at Muse’s state-run auction house is US$2000 per tonne. While this is set by the Department of Fisheries, the department’s director, U Khin Ko Lay, admitted last week that prices for eel on the open-market were currently below the auction’s starting rate, at $1700-$1800 per tonne.

The fall in price has been blamed on oversupply but traders say it may be difficult to stem the flow of eels into Muse because there is an abundance of the fish at this time of year.

“We can catch a lot of eels at this time of year so it’s only natural that we send our catch to the market as soon as possible while they’re still alive,” one eel trader said at the meeting last week.

In response to the plentiful supplies, the MFPEA on July 24 submitted a proposal to the Department of Fisheries requesting a reduction in the Muse auction floor price at times of increased supply.

Should more than 40 tonnes of eel be available at the auction, the floor price should be lowered to $1700 per tonne, according to the association’s proposal.

Most eel traders are believed to favour a reduction in the floor price rather than a cap on the quantity of eel offered.

U Soe Tun Shein noted that even at 40 tonnes per day, eel sales would be a fifth higher than in 2006-07, when 1000 tonnes were exported each month.

According to figures from the Department of Fisheries, eel exports had earned $5.1 million up to July 21, less than 15 percent of their $35-million target almost a third of the way through the fiscal year.

Myanmar earned $18.95 million from 6856 tonnes of eel exports in 2006-07, official figures show.