Zhoushan jumbo flying squid quotes cut for two specifications; Peru quota 98.76% used, Piura artisanal fleet stays in port

In the week of November 2–6 (week 45), wholesale quotes at the Zhejiang Zhoushan International Agricultural Products Trade Center (Zhejiang Agricultural Center) for jumbo flying squid (Dosidicus gigas) showed targeted cuts on two commercial specifications: tubes fell by about RMB 1,600 per tonne (about USD 238), and tail fins by RMB 1,000 per tonne (about USD 149). The market information was published by industry body FrozenGoods on November 10, with the data source attributed to Zhoushan National Distant-Water Fisheries Base Construction and Development Group Co., Ltd.

The trade report did not publish absolute prices for final settlements, nor did it attach an official transaction ledger. Over the same period, quotes for other commercial specifications of jumbo flying squid in Peru remained stable; composite price benchmarks for other major fishing grounds, including the Southwest Atlantic, the Northwest Pacific and the Indian Ocean, were also unchanged. The price pressure in Zhoushan came from a stage-wise increase in arrivals at the docks — the discharge schedules of China's distant-water fleet overlapping with concentrated arrivals of imported container cargo.

This selective decline at destination ports stands in sharp contrast to the situation in the source raw material. According to official data compiled by the General Directorate of Supervision, Inspection and Sanctions (DGSFS-PA) of Peru's Ministry of Production (PRODUCE), cumulative landings of jumbo flying squid reached 700,832.42 tonnes as of October 26, 2026, equivalent to 98.76% of this year's global annual quota. Compared with the monitoring figure of October 19, landings in the following one-week tracking cycle were only 698.15 tonnes, showing that in a fishing season nearing exhaustion, arrivals have slowed to a trickle.

Under the fourth-quarter phased management framework covering October 1 to December 31, 2026, artisanal fishing vessels with hold capacity of less than 10 cubic metres had landed a cumulative 3,582.73 tonnes, equivalent to 36.27% of the quota allocated to this sub-fleet (9,879 tonnes).

The progress of fishing operations along the Peruvian coast remains severely constrained by sea surface temperature anomalies associated with the El Niño phenomenon. These environmental disturbances have significantly altered the spatial distribution of the jumbo flying squid resource, with density falling within customary operating coordinates, leaving vessel owners facing greater difficulty in searching, acoustic detection and organizing fishing operations.

In the northern Piura region, a large number of artisanal vessels have formally stopped operating because of a sharp drop in local resource availability. Sailing south to chase the dispersed biomass would sharply raise marine fuel and logistics costs, exposing vessel owners to serious risk of losses. Faced with this situation, artisanal fishery groups have submitted a formal petition to Peru's Ministry of Production, asking regulators not to impose any additional operating restrictions or fishing bans in the final two months of 2026, and demanding that the small-scale fleet be immediately included in the government's El Niño climate disaster relief framework.

For primary importers, secondary processors and international value-added manufacturers, the current market presents a temporary technical mismatch: the build-up of spot inventory in Zhoushan has briefly pushed down prices for some primary cuts, while the shortage of raw material in South America, the standstill of the Piura fleet and the effective capping of Peru's landings together outline a tightening structural supply chain as the year-end procurement window approaches.