Supply chain issues leading to higher prices and lack of availability for other seafood species and other protein types have ended up being a boon for tilapia, according to a panel of experts speaking at the National Fisheries Institute’s Global Seafood Market Conference (GSMC).
Prior to just a few months ago, tilapia pricing had remained relatively flat since 2016. Prices for IVP frozen three- to five-ounce portions stayed relatively steady at USD 1.80 (EUR 1.59) for two years, and only slowly crept up to USD 2.10 (EUR 1.85) in March 2020, according to data shared during GSMC’s value finfish panel.
The story is similar for China IVP frozen in five- to seven-ounce sizes, as prices remained steady at USD 1.90 (EUR 1.67) for multiple years – and for seven- to nine-ounce sizes. As soon as the pandemic hit, however, prices started to go up, and now the prices for all sizes are at all-time record highs.
“It’s one of the seafood items that really benefitted when other proteins were out of stock,” NFI Programs Director Richard Barry said.
For years, Publix Business Development Seafood Director Guy Pizzuti said, tilapia sales were stagnant.
“In 2017, 2018, 2019, tilapia was dying. We were down year over year,” Pizzuti said.
Since the start of the pandemic, however, prices began to steadily increase, with the price beginning to take off in March 2021. That was partly attributable to tilapia coming under its own supply constraints, according to Sam Galletti of the Great American Seafood Import Company, who said the core reason for supply issues was the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When you’re looking at this price increase since September 2019, you’re really looking at one reason, and that’s COVID,” he said. “Sure there are other reasons. There are weather issues in China, there are more environmental protection activities that the Chinese government is putting through. But for the most part, I think COVID and the zero-COVID tolerance [policy] that’s in China ... has caused a lot of concerns, or a lot of the uncertainty, that surrounds tilapia.”
According to Pizzuti, the recent jump in tilapia pricing is actually attributable to issues from months before, due to delays on lead times on shipments of tilapia from China. According to Pizzuti, the high demand has run down inventories, but buyers are now concerned that purchasing tilapia at its current high price may end up burning them six months from now when prices may fall.
“Right now, we want product. We need product to sell,” Pizzuti said. “The last thing we’re worried about is holding inventory. We need product to get out to the store.”
According to Galletti, tilapia's reputation has recovered as customers have rediscovered the species. For years, negative perception clouded the species, but as customers turned to tilapia when other proteins were either scarce or expensive, they encountered a different product than they may have expected, he said.
“People [who] tried tilapia in the past and didn’t like what they had years ago, they came back and bought a better product,” Galletti said. “I think, as an industry, we’ve drastically improved the quality of the tilapia.”
As other species in the whitefish category continue to become more valuable, tilapia is pulled up along with it, Galletti said.
“As long as other value finfishes are higher than the tilapias of the world, it could be here to stay,” Galletti said.
Photo by Chris Chase/SeafoodSource
