The 2004/2005 glass eels season has proved to be very challenging. Prices have reached levels beyond everyone’s expectations partly driven by the high price of Anguilla Japonica and partly because of the reduced supply of A.anguilla in Europe.

I would estimate that the total exports of glass eels this year to China from Europe was somewhere between 90 and 95 tonnes.
Another three  tonnes of A. rostra were imported by China at a price of 800-950 US dollars per kilo.
One of the effects of the high prices this year has been the interest to experiment with other species.

Another 2.5 tonnes (13 million pieces) of A.bicola (mainly from the Philippines and not Indonesia) has been shipped to China at a price of RMB 1.0-1.2 / piece. The initial results suggest that A.bicola is not a suitable species for farming.

We continue to get offers of small quantities of glass eels from all over the world. These minor species are currently trading between 150 and 200 Euros per kilo. This year we have spent some considerable time traveling all over Asia looking at alternative sources. What is interesting is that our initial assessment of these un-exploited glass eel resources is that they are relatively small compared with those in Europe. The suggestion is that the resource of glass eels in Europe is perhaps disproportionately large compared to other regions of the world.

The market price of eels in China faltered towards the end of the season. There was some loss of confidence in the market.