Findus France sounds alarm on coley stocks

Frozen fish firm Findus France is sounding the alarm on coley stocks following the collapse of its sole supplier of the species.

The news is a big blow for Findus France, which announced in 2007 that sustainability would be firmly calibrated into all of its seafood supply chains.

Danish firm Faroe Seafood of the Faeroe Islands, which supplies 60 percent of the region’s coley, also known as saithe, was the only supplier of coley to Findus France. Coley represents a considerable 20 percent of the company’s seafood sales.

Fewer coley in the region — the Faeroes are situated southeast of Iceland in the middle of the North Atlantic — and Faroe Seafood’s collapse are to blame. Last month, Faroe Seafood went into bankruptcy after negotiations to acquire the company failed to materialize.

Sales of coley to Findus France are guaranteed until March, confirmed the company. Findus France will look to other suppliers to feed its demand, or, alternatively, will fill the supply gap with coley from Alaska. Findus France, which had EUR 170 million in turnover in 2009, said the temporary concern with coley supplies will not impact the price.

Last September, Findus France, run by managing director Matthieu Lambeaux, announced double-digit price hikes for both wild and farmed frozen fish, corresponding with rising costs for raw materials. The company said the average price for its frozen fish range, which includes breaded and cooked products, will rise 15 percent beginning in 2011.

“Fewer and fewer wild fish has fed the price rise,” explained Lambeaux. The firm cited the example of Atlantic cod prices: prices have increased 21 percent in the past year, while coley prices have soared 87 percent.

The strain on prices is not just restricted to wild stocks — a major drop in Chilean salmon production has driven up prices for farmed Atlantic salmon by a massive 60 percent in the past year.

“The ecological reality explains the price rises; it is absolutely necessary and essential that together the actors take this into account and that we must communicate this,” Lambeaux told France’s BFM TV.

He added that the price hikes will be passed on to retailers, who may or may not pass the increase on to consumers.

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