Why fish prices change, and what you are paying for

Fish is one of the few foods most people buy at a price that moves week to week. Meat, dairy and bread are priced on long contracts. Wild fish is priced on what the boats landed, what the weather allowed and what the market paid that morning. This page explains what sits behind the number on the ticket, why the same species costs different amounts in different shops and how to spend less without eating worse.

Why does the price of fish change so often?

• Weather. Boats do not sail in a gale. A run of bad weather takes supply out of the market within days and prices rise across every species landed in the affected waters. A calm settled week does the reverse.
• What actually came up. Wild fishing is not an order book. Some weeks there is plenty of one thing and almost none of another, and price follows.
• Season and condition. Species have periods when they are in good condition and periods around spawning when they are thin and watery. Good condition costs more and is worth more. Our seasonality guide sets out the typical months.
• Quota and management measures. Catch limits are set by species and area and can change through the year, which tightens or loosens supply independently of the weather.
• Demand and the calendar. Christmas, Good Friday and hot bank holidays all move prices, sometimes sharply, and the effect starts at the market well before it reaches a shop.
• Exchange rates and imports. A large share of the fish eaten in the UK is imported, including much of the cod, haddock, tuna and warm water prawns, while a large share of what is landed here is exported. Sterling moves both.
• Fuel, transport and the cold chain. Diesel for the boats, refrigerated transport and chilled storage are all in the price.
• Farmed inputs. Farmed salmon and trout prices track feed costs and the biological conditions on the farms, so they move for their own reasons.

Why is fish expensive compared with chicken?

Three structural reasons, and none of them is anyone taking a large margin.

Yield. You buy a whole animal and eat part of it. A round fish typically gives roughly 40 to 50 per cent of its whole weight as skin-on fillet. Flat fish give rather less. A brown crab typically yields somewhere around a quarter to a third of its live weight as picked meat. The price per kilo of edible fish is therefore always well above the price per kilo on the slab, and this single fact explains most of the gap people notice.

Labour. Fish is cut by hand, one fish at a time, by someone who trained for years to do it. Filleting, skinning, pin-boning, portioning, shucking and crab picking are skilled manual work, and at an independent counter they are usually included in the price rather than charged separately.

Waste and risk. A chilled counter carries the cost of everything it does not sell. Fish has a short window, the shop buys before it knows what will sell that day, and unsold stock is a real loss. A freezer aisle carries almost none of that risk, which is one honest reason frozen product can be priced lower.

Why does the same fish cost different amounts in different shops?

• Different fish. Size grade, condition, whether it is whole or already cut, wild or farmed and where it came from all sit behind one species name. Two cod fillets can be genuinely different products.
• Different buying. Prices at market are set on the day. Buying more often means paying more attention and less holding cost, and different buyers get different fish.
• What is included. Preparation, pin-boning and bagging the frame for stock are free at many counters and priced into a packed product elsewhere.
• Frozen against chilled. Frozen product is bought in volume, held without spoilage risk and priced accordingly, which is a fair advantage rather than a trick. Our page on fresh or frozen fish compares them properly.

How do I compare fish prices fairly?

Compare the cost of what you will actually eat.

1. Take the price per kilo of the whole fish.
2. Divide by the yield as a decimal, so 45 per cent becomes 0.45.
3. That figure is your real price per kilo of fillet, and it is the number to set against a packed fillet.

Then adjust for two things a ticket does not show. Subtract the value of the bones and head, which make a stock you would otherwise buy. Add any delivery charge or minimum order if you are buying online. We go through the same comparison across every buying route on buying fish online in the UK.

How can I spend less on fish?

• Ask what is cheap and good this week. The answer changes every week and it is a saving you can make immediately. Gurnard, coley, whiting, dabs, megrim, pollack, hake tail and mackerel all cook beautifully for very little.
• Buy mussels. Consistently inexpensive in any fish shop and a quick dinner. See moules mariniere.
• Buy the tail end. Thin tail pieces cost less than the thick loin and are ideal for pies, curries, fishcakes and quick pan cooking.
• Buy whole and take the frame. Free filleting plus free stock bones is real money.
• Buy frozen for later in the week. Frozen fish you actually cook costs you less than chilled fish you throw away.
• Use oily fish. Mackerel and sardines are inexpensive, quick and high in omega-3. See omega-3 fish.
• Stretch it. Fish pie, chowder, tacos and kedgeree carry a smaller amount of fish a long way.
• Say your budget out loud. "I have fifteen pounds and I am feeding four" is a normal thing to say at a counter and gets a useful answer. More on that in how to buy fish at a counter.

What are you paying for at a counter?

Buying at market through the week rather than to a schedule. Whole fish assessed by eye before anything is cut. Hand cutting to the shape your dish needs, included. Someone who will tell you when a species is not worth buying this week. The cost of carrying stock that has a short life, so the slab is worth looking at when you walk in.

We have run the counter on Barnes High Street since 1972. We buy at Billingsgate through the week and direct from Cornwall, we cut everything by hand and we will always tell you when something cheaper will do the job. Call the shop or come and look at the slab.