Record prices for cod and haddock have been paid at Grimsby Fish Market.
And while rocketing food inflation is a hot topic, the cost of the town’s finest export has escalated due to a combination of factors not linked to those dominating the news headlines.
Monday’s shout auction saw cod at a high of £7.20 and haddock at £7.80 - up more than 100 per cent on average - but the reasoning was more aligned with the end of the Icelandic fishing season rather than the situation in Ukraine - with Russia’s invasion bringing a levy on its catch while sending energy prices soaring.
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Martyn Boyers, chief executive of market operator Grimsby Fish Dock Enterprises, said: “It was unprecedented yesterday. Cod made an average of £7 per kilo and haddock got up to £7.80, when the average is £3 to £3.50 for both - so it was more than double.
“It is a combination of things, but principally lack of volume. While there is a shortage of fish generally, in Grimsby it is principally down to the fact that we rely on Icelandic fish, and Iceland is at the end of the quota season. It starts again on September 1, unlike the Common Fisheries Policy which is January 1.
“These last few weeks, which we are now in, we are going to be short. Also, with Iceland’s long summer nights, we regularly see factories close down, and a stop to fishing, to working altogether. It is a big, controlled reduction in volume of fish, which is a downside for us with our reliance. These circumstances have come together, with the hot weather too, which makes a very perishable item even more perishable, and while demand rises on the coast for fish and chips, it drops off in-land. It always has a strange implication for the supply chain.”
For the market itself, price is far less important than volume, and efforts are being made to enhance services to merchants, with many buying direct. "We fully expect it to come back, and it will all come back,” Mr Boyers added, of the volumes.
It comes as a bid has been prepared for funding to enhance services offered to merchants, with a focus on handling, grading and storing.
“We’re charging the way we operate and adapting to the challenges,” Mr Boyers said. “We’ve just applied to the government under a new grant scheme for funding to develop the fish market services. The business has changed and we’re adapting to it. We are still very positive about the future and how we’re going to work. This will help us provide a better service.”
Underlining the hike, the last spike in fish prices came shortly after the Christmas break, with cod at £5.50 and haddock at £5.
Desperate to see it as an anomaly, and quickly over, is fish merchant Lee Williams, who operates B&L Filleting and retail outlet The King’s Dish on Riby Street. Speaking having returned from the market with cod remaining at £7 a kilo today, Tuesday, August 9, he said: “I have been in the game quite a few years now and I have never seen prices that high. It was £395 a kit today, which is ridiculous.
“The issue is with Iceland being on holiday, and low supply, there’s more demand from America and Europe, and we haven’t got a fishing fleet here, which for Grimsby to be reliant on third parties is such a shame.
“It is the knock-on for everyone, people’s livelihoods being affected by this. People are just buying to keep customers happy and not making anything on it.”
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