Frozen at Sea Fillet Update

July 3, 2018 Robert Fernandes

It has been quite a challenging 6 months for the supply of frozen at sea fillets. The popularity of the frozen at sea format of cod and haddock is increasing with other big markets (such as UK retail) recognising the quality of these products and taking increasing volumes of the available material. This has combined with reduced Barents Sea quotas for cod and haddock and some challenging fishing conditions and poor catching.

Frozen at Sea Fillet Update

It has been quite a challenging 6 months for the supply of frozen at sea fillets. The popularity of the frozen at sea format of cod and haddock is increasing with other big markets (such as UK retail) recognising the quality of these products and taking increasing volumes of the available material. This has combined with reduced Barents Sea quotas for cod and haddock and some challenging fishing conditions and poor catching.

Production and availability of small cod has been particularly problematic this year and the tightness of supply is forecast to continue. Larger cod fillets remain in good supply and we anticipate good ongoing availability. A flexible approach to grading is to be recommended. However, the market for headed and gutted frozen at sea cod and haddock has been very strong and is paying very high prices in competition to fillets which require more work and yield less. Unfortunately, none of these factors influencing the global fish market particularly help the fish and chip market! Not to mention the relative weakness of sterling as a currency.

Haddock supply is also undergoing similar pressures with increased popularity from competing markets and demand from outside of the fish and chip world combined with relatively poor catching and a lower Barents Sea quota this year.

Recommendations for next year’s Icelandic quotas for cod and haddock are to rise. However, the larger Barents Sea quotas for cod and haddock is to reduce in 2019.

As ever, we are working very hard to maintain our excellent supplies of cod and haddock frozen at sea fillets but availability of certain sizes at certain times is and will continue to be compromised. Prices are set to remain firm for the rest of the year.