Aberdeenshire, Scotland-based Peterhead Market, the U.K.'s biggest fishing port by landing volume, reported an average price for wild-caught Atlantic cod of GBP 6.49 (USD 8.66, EUR 7.60) per kilogram in July, data from the SeafoodSource Pricing Portal has shown. That average was made up of 16 reporting days.
Shetland Market, located at Lerwick, the main port of Scotland's northeastern Shetland Island archipelago, saw average cod prices of GBP 6.42 (USD 8.57, EUR 7.52) over 18 reporting days, while the Brixham Trawler's Agents Market, located in Devon, on the southern coast of mainland England, saw average cod prices at GBP 6.03 (USD 8.05, EUR 7.06) per kilogram over 15 reporting days throughout the month of July.
The SeafoodSource Pricing team treats data out of Peterhead as the most important regional signal, especially because prices at Peterhead are affected by the same forces (such as quotas and scarcity) which shape global whitefish markets. Prices out of Shetland should be understood as a regional check on that Peterhead signal and Brixham prices are offered for comparison.
Peterhead trades in higher quantities of fish and deals with many more buyers than the other two markets, and its prices tend to trend in the middle of those produced by smaller markets. The buying pool at Peterhead is diverse and more reliably liquid than those of the two other markets tracked here; its buyers are less dependent on particular vessels, and its vessels less dependent on particular buyers, than those of the other markets. Peterhead also does not produce data on export prices for the fish landed at the port; all prices are ex-vessel. The auction was one of the few remaining live "shout" auctions until earlier this year, when the Peterhead Port Authority switched to an electronic auction system.
Shetland Auction data is produced by two physical markets on either side of the Shetland Island archipelago, which is to the far north of the Scottish mainland, between the Faroe Islands and Norway. Despite its distance from mainland Scotland, its fisheries fall under the same North Sea and West of Scotland stock quotas that determine U.K. whitefish market prices more broadly. This means that data from the location trends similarly to that produced by Peterhead, but with some important differences. There is no pelagic market in the area, and local buyers are made up of a much smaller pool. Landing data is often highly variable, because the dual ports mean vessels land at one or the other location on given days, not both. These factors mean that single large landings at Shetland often affect prices more dramatically than they would at a major auction like Peterhead.
Brixham pricing data on whitefish offers a counterperspective. Its geographical location means that it is not subject to the same quota pressures as the other two markets, and its main value driver is not whitefish. Often there is no whitefish catch at all at Brixham, but periodically very large whitefish landings are reported.
For pollock, Peterhead saw an average July price of GBP 5.28 (USD 7.05, EUR 6.18) per kilogram, Shetland saw an average price of GBP 4.76 (USD 6.35, EUR 5.57) per kilogram, and Brixham reported an average price of GBP 7.51 (USD 10.03, EUR 8.79).
For hake, Peterhead saw an average July price of GBP 4.89 (USD 6.53, EUR 5.73) per kilogram, Shetland reported an average price of GBP 4.52 (USD 6.03, EUR 5.29), and Brixham reported an average price of GBP 6.81 (USD 9.09, EUR 7.97). and per kilogram for haddock.
For haddock, Peterhead saw an average price of GBP 3.16 (USD 4.22, EUR 3.70) per kilogram, Shetland reported a price of GBP 5.30 (USD 7.08, EUR 6.21), and Brixham reported a price of GBP 2.34 (USD 3.12, EUR 2.74).
Average prices for each location throughout July are below. As stated above cod prices were relatively strong across the board, while the other whitefishes fluctuated in price considerably at the smaller markets, likely due to landing sizes.
