Even though a dozen crabbers staged a strike over price at the start of Florida’s stone crab season late last week, buyers say business is back to normal and prices are still relatively high. Red tide, migration of the crabs to other areas, lack of rough weather, and a host of other issues causing lower supply are keeping prices strong.
“A handful of crabbers refused to go fishing, but the vast majority of crabbers throughout the state went out fishing,” Stephen Sawitz, COO of Joe’s Stone Crab, Miami, Fla., told SeafoodSource. “We set the price for the middle of October, and they rejected that.”
Joe’s Stone Crab purchases a healthy percentage — between 400,000 and 500,000 pounds annually — of Florida’s total stone crab catch. Earlier this month they issued a price they were willing to pay at the beginning of the season. Sawitz said crabbers wanted USD 1 (EUR .73) more per pound across the board, which at the time he believed was too high.
Crabber Mac Collins and a few others in South Florida were striking over what they deemed to be “unfair prices.” However, Sawitz said the striking crabbers wanted a price equal to last season, when product was scarce later in the season.
Joe’s Stone Crab did end up raising its price to fishermen between USD 1 and USD 2 (EUR 1.46) a pound, but that is because “the supply was not as robust,” Sawitz said. Buyers report average dock prices of USD 8 (EUR 5.85) for mediums, USD 14 (EUR 10.23) for large crab, and USD 18 (EUR 13.15) a pound for jumbo.
“Prices are always high in the beginning. We overpaid at USD 10 (EUR 7.31) a pound for mediums and USD 20 (EUR 14.61) a pound for jumbos,” Cinthia Sandoval, outreach director for Wild Ocean Seafood Market in Titusville and Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Retail and foodservice prices are also high to start out. While Wild Ocean started the season charging USD 16.99 (EUR 12.41) a pound for mediums, USD 21 (EUR 15.34) a pound for large, and USD 29.99 (EUR 21.91) a pound for jumbos, it dropped prices last weekend (19 to 20 October) after buying a bigger load at a better price.
