The Tribune

By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian seafood processor yesterday confirmed that a global over-supply of lobster is driving relatively low prices for local fishermen at the opening of crawfish season.

Ben Frisch, a Tropic Seafood director, told Tribune Business there is a glut of high-value fisheries products that is depressing prices amid complaints from Bahamian fishermen that the price they are receiving has reduced from $12 per pound at the opening of the 2022 crawfish season to $7 now.

Describing the global market as currently "idle" and "weak", he added that many wholesalers and processors have lowered their prices in line with the over-supply and relatively weak demand.

“The seafood complex in the whole world is going down in price right now. It is driven by the market; it’s not what anybody wants to pay," Mr Frisch said. "At some point in time, you have to figure out what you can sell and, right now, the market is completely idle. Nothing is moving. The market is very weak worldwide.

"There's inventories that we've never seen before still in stock all over the world. There is a lot of last year’s stock, and that's the problem right there. And I can tell you that all the other fisheries in the world - the crab fishery, the salmon fishery, the shrimp fishery - just set a low price for the year that keeps going down. Trends are going down in price on every seafood commodity, but it's all the high-price stuff. People don't have enough money to buy this type of product any more.

“Back in the US, 80 percent of the people are living pay cheque to pay cheque, so they can't afford it. And so we don't know where it's going to go. We don't know what the price is going to be. I think it's a better thing to really look at it two or three weeks from now because all of our European customers, nobody is saying anything They're not even asking us for product. They still have product leftover from last year," he added.

"So I think the best thing to do is see where everything goes in the market. The season is only three days in. So there has to be a starting point. The starting point is going to be pretty close. But it should move up a little bit.”

Bahamian fishermen said they were in a "serious predicament" because their margins have been significantly reduced by a combination of low lobster prices and high fuel costs. Mr Frisch said costs have increased worldwide for all, while demand has decreased, leading to every point in the chain feeling the pinch. He added that he expects the final lobster trading price to increase from $7, but not by much.

“Every cost they have gone up because everybody has gone up. I don't care what it is, whether you are a processor, whether you're a fisherman, whether you're a homeowner. Every price has gone up and it's not just in The Bahamas but further away," Mr Frisch said.

"We want the fishermen to do well, we need everybody to do well on the chain; that's the important thing. But it is true. The markets are very unsettled. There is this huge amount of supply out there in Europe, in Canada. I mean, our Canadian buyers don't even want any product right now, half of our people in Europe don't want any product. It's a very scary thing right now.”

“The fishermen, I can understand how they feel. I mean, I feel bad myself," Mr Frisch continued. "We still have a lot of products from last season and that product is way more expensive. And we're going to lose ourselves. We're all in the same boat. There's nothing we can do about it, it's the market. We want to help the fishermen and try to get better quality, help them to do a better job with what they do," he added.

"But we cannot tell somebody they have to pay us a certain price on offset because our electric bill is too high. They don't care. They are paying a ridiculous price for diesel fuel, which we are. I think at the end, they'll get more than $7, but it ain't going to be much more because that's probably a legitimate price based on what it costs to get it from the boat to somebody's table. There's a lot of expenses and a lot of costs to go into.”

Local fishermen have indicated they are planning on stockpiling their catch to sell when the market recovers. Mr Frisch warned that, if they go this route, they must ensure their freezers are "good". He added that he has not seen the market with such a large oversupply in 50 years.

He said: “They have to be careful because if they don't handle them properly and the quality goes down, they're not even going to be worth talking about. So they have to have good freezers if they intend to do something like that. It's their choice.

“The fishermen, at the end of the day, get their money immediately. When they deliver product they get paid. We may not get paid for that same lobster tail for three months. And we may not know what we're going to get. Right now it is very, very…I've never seen it like this in 50 years. We've never had this situation where there's such an oversupply. There's just too much supply out there. That's that's what it boils down to.”