By weight, pollack, which is mainly exported to France and Spain...
was the most plentiful fish on the market this morning in Newlyn where over 8,000kg was landed from four boats - on Monday this week, pollack was making £4.50 a kilo - by this morning the average price was 41p - one boat, which had leased all of its pollack quota at 50p a kilo made a net loss on the trip - which means that not only would the crew - all of whom are 'share-fishermen' receive no wage but the boat's expenses, which included around 6,000litres of fuel, meant were significantly more than the boat grossed...
where possible it would be a really positive move for retail outlets like supermarkets with wet-fish counters, wet-fish shops and fish shops make use of this cod-like fish...
prices for other fish that have markets in the UK like Dover sole. John Dory...
dogfish...
haddock...
ray...
plaice...
and line caught mackerel were around 20% lower which at least means the boats fishing for these species can continue to fish profitably rather than catch species that cannot be sold at present...
meanwhile the price for hake, of which 90% used to be exported to Spain but is now consumed in much greater quantities in the UK has held up...
- which Ryan, skipper of the Stelissa with a big trip of hake to land tomorrow will hope holds true...
news from customers 'up-country' would suggest that the home market is holding up - let's hope it continues to do so as the knock-on effect of boats forced to tie up because they cannot sell there fish would be huge and affect more than just the local economy.
