While the first-sales values of crab in both France and the United Kingdom have fallen this year, the two markets have experienced very different supply and price fluctuations, according to the latest sales figures from the European Commission’s European Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture Products (EUMOFA).
In France, first-sales of crab decreased 2 percent in value and increased 3 percent in volume in the first four months of this year, reaching EUR 1.9 million (USD 2.2 million) and 921 metric tons (MT). On average, approximately 80 percent of the volume and 70 percent of the value of France’s crab landings comprise spider crab (Maja squinado). The rest is mainly brown crab (Cancer pagurus).
In the United Kingdom, for the same four-month period of this year, the first-sales value and volume of crab amounted to EUR 5.9 million (USD 7 million) and 2,791 MT, representing decreases of 36 percent and 43 percent respectively. Brown crab historically represents more than 90 percent of U.K. crab landings. Most of the remainder is velvet swimming crab (Necora puber), which has become increasingly commercially important in southern European markets.
General crab prices have increased in the U.K. market this year, but the opposite is true in France, where the average unit price for the January through April 2017 period was EUR 2.07 (USD 2.45) per kg, down 5 percent compared to the corresponding period of last year and 14 percent less than in 2015.
In the United Kingdom, meanwhile, prices for January through April 2017 increased 12 percent year-on-year to EUR 2.13 (USD 2.52) per kg, which was the price level seen in 2015.
