With contribution from  Jeanine Stewart

BRUSSELS, Belgium  -- Trading of Peruvian fishmeal market is on hold as market players are waiting for the price to settle down and focusing on wrapping up fishing efforts, Peruvian exporters told  Undercurrent News.

Amid fears of new Kelvin waves approaching the Peruvian coast, producers are hoping that the first season' s anchovy quota  will be fully caught by May, sources toldUndercurrent  during  Seafood Expo Global  in Brussels this week.

Prices for super prime fishmeal out of Peru  had jumped from levels of$1,600  per metric ton at the start of last year' s season to  $2,400/t,  FOB Peru, in early November.

Exporters are putting the  focus on catching the entire quota  of this year' s first anchovy season, rather than on closing sales, said sources. This is due to concerns that  new warm Kelvin waves  could soon be reaching the Peruvian coast, which could affect fishing by causing anchovy to migrate  to cooler, deeper waters.

" We don' t want to take risks and close at a price now, as we don' t know the development of the fishing season. We hope to finish the fishing season in May, a month earlier than it is supposed to end, as catches are good so far"

" We are now more focused on fishing anchovy than on selling fishmeal," a major Peruvian fishmeal exporter told  Undercurrentduring the Brussels seafood show  (recap all our  coverage on  our bloghere).

" If we fish all the TAC [total allowable catches, set at2.58 million metric tons  for the first season of 2015] there will be a price correction downwards, but if new Kelvin waves affect catches prices will keep firm,"   said this exporter.

" We don' t want to take risks and close at a price now, as we don' t know the development of the fishing season. We hope to finish the fishing season in May, a month earlier than it is supposed to end, as catches are good so far," he said.

According to this exporter, Peruvian fishmeal companies have already produced about 250,000t of fishmeal from the current season. The anchovy  fleet had caught  about 32%  or 800,000t of the TAC in the first 11 days of fishing, since the season started on April 9.

Out of this production, about 70,000t of fishmeal have been pre-sold in March at a price of $2,000/t for  super prime FOB Peru, three major Peruvian sellers told  Undercurrent.

" The price of this season is going to depend on how the fishing goes. Now it is performing well, so buyers are on hold waiting for a price correction," said a second major fishmeal exporter.

" Personally, I think there will be a price correction in the range of $1,900-$1,850/t. I understand there is a good farming season in China and stocks are scarce, so they should start buying soon," the source said.

Another two  Peruvian fishmeal exporters said Chinese demand was expected to be activated soon on low stocks.

" The market is not active yet, but it will be soon as we know that China is going to need super prime fishmeal, and Peru is the only country capable of supplying this type of fishmeal in large volumes," the first fishmeal exporter said.

The negative impact of the oceanographic conditions on the anchovy stocks linked to  El Nino  last year saw  fishmeal prices soar. With normal fishing conditions, fishmeal prices would have been around $1,600/t for quotas of 2.5m metric tons, the second fishmeal exporter said.