However, despite the disruption, there are signs that white fish prices are starting to stabilise after the high levels of the past few weeks.

Steve Norton, chief executive of the Grimsby Fish Merchants Association, who has just returned from a fact finding supply chain mission to Iceland, was sympathetic. He said: "We encountered some very bad weather and it showed the difficulty shippers face to getting fish supplies to the Humber on schedule at this time of year.

Both Humber markets are expected to have good supplies of both haddock and cod from today and this, says seafood supplier M&J Seafoods in its regular market report, should helped to stabilise prices for the rest of the week. The company said there should be no shortages in spite of the hold up and prices were starting to ease back for some varieties.

It had also managed to secure high quality cod from Scotland and supplies of fresh haddock from the Faroe Islands, which should be further boosted when the Icelandic ship arrive.

Bad weather has again affected the harvesting of salmon in Scotland, but this situation was expected to improve later in the week and good supplies were coming in from Scotland.

Supplies of exotic fish were also in good shape thanks to good landings abroad and the wild halibut fishing season in the Pacific would soon start again, although M&J said strong demand from the United States could keep prices high for a time.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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