Although Indonesian imports declined again in the first half of this year to 416 tons, a decline of 29 percent, the country's largest producer says its new cage farm on a lake in Sumatra is now fully operational. As a result, the company expects to increase its U.S. exports about 50 percent. Price trends When supplies double in just two years, it's not surprising to see prices slide. While that has happened to some extent with tilapia, prices still remain surprisingly strong. All the big customers get called two or three times by different importers, and people are switching back and forth.
Every buyer now has two or three sources.
The fact that just four importers supply almost 90 percent of the fresh tilapia fillets sold in the United States makes it relatively easy for buyers to play suppliers against each other. The price of frozen tilapia fillets has also softened somewhat with the Chinese flooding the market with product of variable quality. Don't be surprised if the average price of frozen fillets drops a quarter or more over the next 12 months, making tilapia an even better buy. Almost everyone knows that the term sashimi is synonymous with superb quality. That the fillets had a nice reddish tint made them all that more attractive.