Whitby Seafoods has announced plans to support boats affected by increased crew costs by raising the price it pays for scampi tails.
Recent changes in crew costs highlighted by a Seafish assessment were predicted to affect 75% of all boats landing scampi tails to Whitby Seafoods.
The Seafish report illustrated that the nephrops fleet could experience “annual operating losses of between £41.5k and £83.5k per vessel, on average, unless these losses are offset by increased prices”.
It added that the changes could lead to “vessel tie-ups and business closures, with a knock-on impact on scampi supply in the UK”.
Whitby has made the decision to support all its boats with these price increases with those supporting the In Transition to MSC Programme getting the highest tail prices. This is to act as a financial incentive for boats to sign up to the improvement programme for the fishery.
“Whitby Seafoods has taken significant steps to improve the viability of UK scampi and our recent initiatives demonstrate the positive direction we are heading in,” said managing director Daniel Whittle. “We’re proud to play a leading role in helping the sector adopt and implement measures which will ensure that the UK fishing fleet is safe and sustainable for generations to come.
“As an independent family-owned company, we’re deeply committed to the sustainability of our waters, and we’re working hard to make sure that responsible fishing practices help scampi remain a firm favourite on the tables of UK families for generations to come,” said Whittle. “No one welcomes price inflation, but this should lead to an important step change in the scampi fishery”.
The Seafish assessment said the government-revised salaries on-board boats meant the prices paid by processors/wholesalers to vessel operators would need to increase by 33%. Meanwhile, the price processors would charge retailers and foodservice sector buyers would need to rise by 14.5% and 15.6% respectively.
Whitby said it had asked retail and foodservice customers for price increases to cover the tail price increases. However, it has chosen to recover only a portion of the cost to keep scampi competitive.
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