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Hake prices at Newlyn have collapsed to the worst level fishermen have
seen for 20 years, leading to "rock bottom" morale among crews,
said a Cornish fishermen's leader. Paul Trebilcock, chief executive of
the Cornish Fish Producers' Organisation, says that hake prices look like
staying at an all time low for at least another week.
A week ago a small fleet of hake netters from Newlyn and Padstow returned
with "a really good start" to the 2004 hake season, said Mr
Trebilock.
"It was good fish of all sizes and really top quality landings,
the best hake we have seen for many years. Boats now have refrigeration
systems aboard to keep the catch in prime condition and simply, the hake
stock is in good shape, yet the prices collapsed to the worst our fishermen
have seen for 20 years. Morale has understandably hit rock bottom."
He said a typical hake netting crewman would have returned from a seven-day
trip last week for a wage of less than £350, before tax (that must
last him two weeks because gill netters can work only on neap tides).
Several of the boats are expected to leave the hake fishery and return
to tangle netting or wreck netting until the hake prices recover.
Mr Trebilock explained: "We understand that there are several contributing
factors behind this price fall, the biggest being summer holidays of staff
at fish markets in Spain where 80 per-cent or more of the hake landed
here ends up.
"It is such a shame that we have seen a drop of this magnitude,
where fish weighing between 2kg and 3kg made only £1.40 per kg on
Newlyn market last Friday when it should have been over twice that.
"Net caught hake are prime fish, a really high value product and
although the buyers say they are having difficulty shifting them, we say
it's now time for the buyers to try harder.
"To see figures like £1.40 per kg seems like daylight robbery
to the skippers and crewmen. One would expect a dip in most export fish
prices during the next couple of weeks but not at this level.
"It is beyond anything that vessel owners or their crewmen can handle.
It's little use trying to ask the British fish trade to take over from
the export demand for net caught hake, because in Britain, you would have
trouble selling any fish weighting over 3kg."
The CFPO has been liaising with buyers in the UK, France and Spain, but
has been told that these buyers are under economic pressure to buy cheaper
hake exported from South America, which takes the bottom out of the market
for European hake.
The CFPO believes that the public are being misled by what it calls "spurious
claims" from scientific and conservation bodies, which may deter
consumers from buying net caught fish, even though fishery scientists
acknowledge that stocks of north Atlantic hake are in good shape.
Mr Trebilcock said: "We have spoken to many fish buyers on Newlyn
market who say they will work even harder to sell the hake."
article copyright © THE CORNISHMAN
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