Seafood suppliers, fish markets and trawlers in Australia have been hit hard by the impacts of coronavirus but Queenslanders’ love of seafood and unusually low prices have given the industry a temporary boost.
Normally seafood suppliers are gearing up for one of the busiest times of the year, but this Easter long queues and huge volumes of pre-orders have been replaced with takeaway services and home deliveries.
Prawn trawler Daryl Davis, based at Shorncliffe on Brisbane’s bayside, said consumers would benefit with freshly caught prawns at the lowest prices he had ever seen.
He said medium to large tiger and green prawns were selling for between $15 to $20 a kilo.
“That’s the lowest prices we’ve ever sold them, they’re going back to 1980 prices,” Mr Davis said.
“We’ve just got to take it if we don’t take that price, we don’t sell them.”
He said business had picked up in the past two weeks heading into Easter.
“Since late February, early March it’s been a hard time for us all,” he said.
“We’ll get through it, we’ve been through it before.”
The manager of Morgan’s Seafood at Scarborough, Julie Hanson, said record low prices were a result of the volume of ocean-caught seafood and low demand.
“There’s so much product out there and the demand hasn’t been there, we’ve been able to buy the product at cheaper prices and pass it on,” she said.
“I’ve got prawns at only $12.99 a kilo that hasn’t happened since I’ve been here, and I’ve been here for 11 years.”
2020 ABC