National Fish & Chip Day

Happy National Fish and Chip Day to all of our (if there are any) regular seafood blog readers, a slightly delayed celebration this year but expect the queue for the traditional Friday night supper to be even longer this week!

Although usually held in June ‘you-know-what’ has delayed the event until today (Friday 4^th September) and your blog writer needs no encouragement to frequent the local and divide opinion by requesting gravy with the world’s greatest meal.

Eat Out to Help Out Success!

Whatever people made of Rishi Sunak’s initial announcement that people could get up to 50% off early weekday dining, the scheme certainly captured the public’s interest. With venues booked up and turning away diners the news is that 64m meals were claimed in the first 3 weeks of the scheme alone, providing a welcome boost to the hospitality industry.

Of course anything that encourages diners back into restaurants is good news for the food sector and support industries. Many businesses are currently reacting and diversifying their operations and the seafood sector is no exception, with direct to customer sales booming. New research has found that couriers are carrying £5m of seafood across the country, largely directly to the customer’s front door, as businesses find a way to reach their target market. This new model could be here to stay with younger tech savvy generations accustomed to the convenience of ordering just about anything and having it delivered hassle free.

Cod Prices Plummet

With the world still reeling from the Covid outbreak it’s no surprise that demand for Atlantic Cod has dropped sharply but this marks the first time in 5 years that the market price has fallen. The UK is of course a significant portion of this market and with the local chippy closed, demand has been hit hard.

This of course follows the significantly reduced cod quota, but with the world being gently pushed back to ‘normal’ there is surely no question the price and demand will increase in late 2020 / early 2021.

Low raw material prices provide a new challenge for the sector and in some cases an exciting opportunity, but predicting when to buy and when the price will rise will be the trick for many.

Any Grimsby based blog writer knows that haddock is the superior fish anyway…

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