Business / Fish markets keep going in unstable situation
WHITE fish sales are continuing in Lerwick and Scalloway with around six boats expected for tomorrow (Friday), but the situation will be reviewed again next week.
One fish salesman with agents LHD said it would be interesting to see what prices will do tomorrow and on Monday when a few more boats will land after fishing over the weekend.
He said that there had been sufficient buyer demand to keep prices reasonable last week, but they had fallen back after good landings locally and at Peterhead on Monday. The following day round whitings had halved again and that had led to a voluntary tie-up of some boats.
“That sent a bit of a shock wave through the whole industry. Prices seemed to collapse a fair chunk,” said the salesman.
Although some of the bigger processors and factories have shut up shop, there is still a good trade with the smaller fish mongers, he added.
“As long as the buyers have orders to fill, we are happy to run the markets. That could change, but in the meantime we will be continuing the same.
“Tomorrow will be interesting to gauge the state of the markets and Monday’s market will be another good gauge on prices.”
He said that some of the boats that had tied up through the week might be tempted out again if Friday’s prices come back up, leading to oversupply again. It was a difficult balancing act to achieve price stability.
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