THE FISHMONGER
Will we get to the other side? By: The fishmonger *
Nearly every country on the planet is dealing with COVID-19 and clearly some are handling the crisis better than others. Sadly, we are told that globally things will get much worse. The most successful countries have taken a strong health pathway and enforced their communities into lockdowns. By doing this the risk of virus transmission is limited but lockdowns have serious implications on the economy and the ‘million dollar’ question is how soon do you come out of the lockdown; how quickly do you establish the economy and how has it impacted your industry?
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hilst retailers have generally been open and trading across the world, events have been cancelled or at least postponed, the travel industry has grounded to a halt (the international airline indus-
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try have recently suggested it will be 2023 before any return to normality) and along with that the tourism and hospitality industry has been decimated. Restaurant and catering operators have either closed or innovated into delivery/take-home operations.
The impacts on the full seafood supply chain are profound. In the UK it has been reported that the export market disappeared overnight and with foodservice concerned about virus spread this only left the supermarket as the go-to for seafood. Whether this was an opportunity lost or a massive failure on previous marketing but when the panic buying started, the consumers came for the beef, pork, lamb and especially chicken whereas chilled fish packs were left on the shelves. As nothing changed in the buying dynamic, the quantity of fish on offer diminished. A colleague has suggested that this was due to the absence of older consumers, who would have been more receptive to buying a variety of species but, due to the virus, were told to stay at home. Supermarkets then decided to cease all service counters including fish to enable staff to help with restocking shelves. The closure of supermarket fish counters meant that what fish was being harvested had few buyers and this was reflected in the prices to the fishers thus making operations unworkable. This issue sparked The Fishmongers interest in a recent article about a ‘celebrity’ chef and restaurateur whose business was part of
JUNE - JULY 2020
