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THE Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis is beginning to impact on shellfish prices across Europe and Britain, exactly as predicted by Fishupdate shortly after the disaster first happened in April.
The main issue is with warm water prawns where prices are shooting up by 17 per cent and more. UK seafood supplier M&J Seafoods says in its monthly report that the leak has resulted in American seafood buyers looking to South East Asia to replace what has been lost through federal fishing bans in the Gulf. The other factor in the equation is that fish farmers are harvesting warm water prawns earlier than normal due to earlier failed 'crops' which means there are less large sized prawns being produced.
M&J says:"The United States tends to buy larger sizes so there is the double whammy of less product and greater demand. Prices have gone up across the board by circa 17 per cent, but larger prices have been affected even worse and prices continue to rise."
Three months ago it was predicted that if the spill worsened - as it has - it could trigger a prawn and shrimp prices rise similar to that involving salmon following the outbreak of disease in Chile more than 18 months ago.
Meanwhile, in the US the talk is of continuing seafood price rises for prawns (shrimp) and oysters which are now double what they were before the disaster struck. The level of the increase depends on what website buyers read. Another survey says that almost half of all Americans have turned away from seafood because they fear for its safety. But others are saying that seafood caught in the Gulf is perfectly safe and people should ignore the scare stories circulating the interne, which have little foundation in scientific fact. With hopes of the BP leak being capped in the next few days the situation could return to normal before the end of the summer.
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