Why Fish Prices Are So Fluky
Why is seafood so expensive? It's a question often asked these days, and one that requires a complicated answer. Despite popular opinion, fish are not expensive because retailers are gouging the consumer nor because fishermen are greedy. Most are not. But the old law of supply and demand has had a few new wrinkles.
Consumer preference for a relatively small number of species has kept the price for these species high, especially in an era of depleted fish stocks and resultant stringent regulation. Mandated openings and closings to protect popular fisheries have added a layer of unnatural seasons of abundance and paucity to nature's own cycles.
The effect of this, industry observers say, is that consumers who used to know enough to buy certain fish during natural periods of abundance, and relatively low prices, have been thrown off: Retailers have had to keep prices high to compensate for disrupted buying patterns.
Shellfish Reasonable
In general, fish prices have increased over the past several years, at least for the more popular species, although the average price of seafood has not risen as dramatically as many consumers think. However, many fish, especially underutilized species, are not expensive at all, and buying whole fish can cut the cost substantially.
Right now (following the holidays) clams and oysters are reasonable, around $4.50 per dozen for Little Necks, $1 more per dozen for cocktail-size oysters. Whole cod, now selling for around $2.50 per pound, is reportedly the cheapest it's been at this season for many years because mild weather has kept boats fishing.
The price of shrimp and salmon has either stayed the same over the past decade or actually declined because of the availability of farm-raised fish. The price of lobsters, considered a luxury species, is not out of sight now either, ranging from $4.50 to $8 a pound, again because of the mild weather.
Juggling Act
In almost every case, greater supply has meant lower prices. This is nearly always the case in the world of seafood, although its perishable nature often upsets the fish cart.
That is to say, retailers who overbuy and get stuck with surplus fish often make up their losses at the cash register. It's a juggling act, retailers say, but one that depends on the availability of fish to work smoothly, and smoothly translates to lower prices.
While fishermen and fish dealers will never agree on everything, they do seem to agree that more "product" - as they refer to fish - would benefit both sides of the supply and demand formula.
Fewer Fish
"It's the one unifying influence," in the words of Roger Tollefsen, president of the New York Seafood Council, a 350-member advocacy group.
"People don't want to admit it, but there is less product, that's the bottom line," said John Haessler, owner of the Seafood Shop, a popular fish market in Wainscott.
"I have to deal with more and more suppliers for the same amount of product. How many baymen are left? Those who have been with me for 27 years have taken part-time jobs. There's no longer a spring run. In the past, good trappers made half their season with truckloads of squid and blackfish. Squid don't seem to come in. There's a little bit of inshore flounder, but the volume is way down. There's seldom a glut of flounder," Mr. Haessler said.
But fishermen and retailers also agree that the more-fish-lower-prices formula does not necessarily require more of the "big three" - as Mr. Tollefsen calls cod, flounder, and salmon. He adds tuna to the list in local markets.
Price Swings
Mr. Tollefsen said the industry now recognized that "it will not receive full value for its product until it learns to match supply with consumer demand. A stable price is good for everyone. It's a learning curve, an industry challenge."
This is not likely to happen soon. The catastrophic depletion of popular fish stocks is only beginning to be reversed under government management policies.
The price to consumers of popular seafoods like flounder fillet and tuna can rise and fall by as much as 100 percent during the year as availability varies. Fishermen also see great fluctuations in the prices they get for their catches.
For example, a Montauk draggerman said this week the price of flounder to the boat went from $2.25 a pound to 75 cents in less than a week's time. The retail price of flounder fillet dropped in East End markets to as low as $5.95 per pound after Christmas because of the increased supply.
Comparison Shopping
Mr. Tollefsen said price swings might be less dramatic if consumers could be kept better informed - "But whose responsibility is it to inform them?" he asked. He added that retail advertising usually was costly.
Still high compared with chicken? Yes, but not that high compared with boneless chicken breasts, or filet mignon, which fishmongers say is the true comparison food since there is no waste.
A whole flounder that a wholesale buyer pays a fisherman $1.50 per pound for yields about a third its weight in fillets. The real cost therefore is $4.50 per pound, not counting the cost of filleting (about 30 cents), and overhead.
One obvious solution to the high price of fish would be for the consumer to buy it whole and cut it at home. Better yet, bake it and eat it whole, Bob Valenti, owner of Multi-Aquaculture Systems, a wholesale and retail market in Amagansett, suggested.
Multi-Aquaculture Systems
The perception of high fish prices annoys him because, he said on Monday, the price of fish to the fisherman and to the retailer is "amazingly low." And they would be low to the consumer, if consumers would break their expensive eating habits.
"People won't buy whiting and red hake, which is very cheap. They insist on tuna when it's not tuna season, and they insist on fillet. People used to take the head off a flounder and put it in the pan. That's how the Chinese can pay so much for live stuff," Mr. Valenti said, invoking the international market for live fluke as an example.
Asian markets are able to pay more for local fish because the fish are sold whole to the retailer, and they are often consumed whole. Without loss due to cutting, or processing, a premium can be paid to the fisherman, while wholesale and retail prices stay down.
Retail Campaigns
Mr. Tollefsen said the Seafood Council had been engaged in a "Long Island Fresh" campaign to teach consumers about seasonality, and for years has been involved in a program it calls "hidden treasures," which helps retailers market underutilized species.
The goal is to create appetites for less costly fish such as dogfish, which is sometimes marketed as cape shark, and for whiting and mackerel, where little demand existed before.
"People [here] don't want to cook themselves. They want prepared food, and it has changed the complexion of selling fish," Mr. Valenti said.
Asian Markets
Flying fish - not the species, but the international air-freight market for a variety of species - has raised local prices too.
The fact that tuna caught off Long Island is sold to Japan at a premium price raises the general price of tuna, said Emerson Hasbrouck, a fisheries specialist with the Cornell Cooperative Extension Service. The price paid for locally caught fluke bound for Asian markets likewise influences the retail price of the fish on Long Island.
In addition to trying new varieties and learning how to fillet fish, retailers insist there is one way an educated consumer, even a finicky one, can satisfy a seafood appetite without going broke, despite difficult times in the industry.
Stay In Touch
"Stay in touch, have a dialogue with your fish supplier. Now's a good time for lobsters, and steamers are nice and salty," is the advice of Charlotte Klein Sasso, a retail marketer who recently took over Stuart's Seafood in Amagansett.
"It's what we love about this business," said Ms. Klein Sasso. "There are few industries where you're in touch, and know the person who caught the fish, and who you sell it to. Don't be afraid of new things, mussels and squid," she advised. "If it's on the special board, you can trust that we are passing along something nice."