Seafood lovers can expect to pay more for prawns this Christmas.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
While the quality of the prawns harvested for the festive season are assured by fishermen, sellers and seafood industry bodies as being “top quality”, pressure on supply coupled with rising costs across the board is expected to impact how much people pay at the register.
Fisherman’s Wharf Seafood owner Peter Hofbauer said customers need to get in early to order prawns otherwise risked missing out.
“Australian prawns are always very popular over the Christmas season,” he said.
“Whilst Australian prawn fishers and farmers are working hard around the clock to bring their freshest catch to Australia’s tables, there seems to be difficulty for small retailers getting enough Aussie prawns to meet the demands of their customers.”
Mr Hofbauer, who has operated his Nelson Bay seafood business for 14 years, said the reason small retailers struggle to get enough catch for their customers around Christmas is due to the increased demand of prawns from big supermarkets.
Additionally, a white spot outbreak saw many prawn farms voluntarily shut down their operations early this year to control the disease.
While the white spot outbreak did not affect food safety, it gave the prawns an unsightly appearance.
Port Stephens fisherman Phil Blanch predicted the prawns would be big this season, as it has been a dry season and the prawns would not have bred a lot.
Mr Blanch said because of this consumers could expect the price of fresh prawns to be high come Christmas time.
Mr Hofbauer agreed, saying customers were looking at $30 or $40 a kilo for king or tiger prawns. During Christmas last year Mr Hofbauer sold three tonnes of prawns and 5000 dozen oysters.
“I expect [trade] will be very similar last year. I don’t expect it to be more than last year but I think it will be pretty similar,” he said. “Electricity bills have gone up, so have phones. I don’t know if there will be a growth. People only have a certain amount of money.
“There's so many things that are going up. I think we might have people instead of getting two kilos of prawns getting one kilo.”
In addition to tiger, king and green prawns, Mr Hofbauer predicted there would be a lot more mud crabs, blue swimmer crabs and fish available this year.
According to the Australian Council of Prawn Fishers, 15,000 tonnes of prawns are consumed by Australian at Christmas.
Council chair Annie Jarrett said consumers can rest assured their prawns would be “top quality” this year.