Argentina's Mar del Plata Port Pier 2: Fresh and Frozen Hake Unloaded Together, Boneless Fillets Quoted Near USD 4,000 per Tonne

On a Wednesday afternoon in November 2026, unloading operations at Pier 2 (muelle 2) of Argentina's Mar del Plata port consisted mainly of fresh and frozen hake (merluza). Most of the fleet in the ninth operating zone lay moored in the sunshine, and the fresh-fish vessel "José Marcelo" was berthed at the pier, where Hipocoop cooperative stevedores had been working for some time, hoisting fish boxes containing hake from the hold in batches by crane and then distributing them among the trucks according to the different receivers.

The person in charge of unloading on site said this was the 23rd trip of the year, "this time involving 12 cold stores, maybe 10 or 14, it varies with each trip." The vessel belongs to Moscuzza, sailed on October 26 and returned fully loaded; it is 40 meters long and brought back a total of 7,500 boxes of hake, and the 30 members of the Hipocoop cooperative will need about 5 hours to complete this unloading.

Fish boxes sampled and weighed showed that the catch was in good condition but of uneven size grades. A representative of a processing company that bought part of the catch for export said the current purchase price is 1,350 to 1,450 pesos per kilogram plus VAT, and the domestic market price is not far from this level.

As of October 27, combining the two stocks as distinguished in official statistics, hake landings were up 16,000 tonnes year on year. Among them, landings of northern hake (merluza del norte) rose 41%, an increase of 15,727 tonnes; the southern stock (efectivo sur) totaled 157,158 tonnes, up 8% year on year.

Of the 260,000 tonnes of the southern stock landed as of that date, offshore fresh-fish vessels contributed 150,000 tonnes, up 22% year on year; freezer trawlers accounted for 95,285 tonnes, an increase of 11% over 2025. This figure is expected to be updated in subsequent official reports, which will include nearly 1,000 tonnes of catch brought back by Pascual Baldino's freezer vessel "Coalsa Segundo," unloaded by stevedores from Pequeña Marina. Pequeña Marina is the only non-cooperative enterprise among those authorized to provide stevedoring services at Mar del Plata port, and judging from the pier, it is also one of the few companies whose workers wear safety helmets.

Boxes of headed and gutted (HG) hake and hake trunks (tronco) were stacked in different areas, and forklifts loaded them onto trucks. One truck carried a Hapag Lloyd container directly and would travel 400 kilometers for export via a terminal in the Buenos Aires port area. Maersk container ships have not entered the port since the end of June.

A few dozen meters to the left, in the sixth operating zone, the "Ponte de Rande" stood out, with stevedoring handled by Cootraport. Site supervisor Mariano said the vessel returned from a 39-day trip with 863 tonnes of catch, of which 550 tonnes were trunks and 150 tonnes fillets, "it came back not full." There were no containers mounted on truck chassis here; the cargo was received by vehicles owned by Solimeno.

External demand for Argentine hake (merluza hubbsi) is strengthening, and the price of interleaved fillets has approached USD 4,000 per tonne, even in Brazil, the second-largest destination market after Spain. Experts tracking price, demand and supply changes for Argentina's main export species say the phenomenon stems from reduced whitefish supply from several fishing grounds worldwide. A representative of a processing company interviewed listed: "The Russian fleet is catching very little Alaska pollock in the North Atlantic, fish that used to be reprocessed in China; catches of Gayi (Chilean jack mackerel) in Chile and Peru are down; and Capensi (Cape hake) from southern African countries is also declining."