Do you know the different trims of Atlantic Salmon?

C TRIM

• Back bone out
• Belly ribs off
• Collar bone off
• Dorsal fin off
• Dorsal fin trimmed
• Fat and belly fin trimmed
• Pinbone out

D TRIM

• Back bone out
• Belly ribs off
• Collar bone off
• Dorsal fin off
• Dorsal fin trimmed
• All belly completely removed with straight vertical cut
• Pinbone out
• Tail trimmed
• Fully trimmed

E TRIM

• Back bone out
• Belly ribs off
• Collar bone off
• Dorsal fin trimmed
• All belly completely removed with straight, vertical cut (not feathered)
• Pinbone out
• Tail trimmed
• Fully trimmed
• Skin off

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 What’s my fish worth?

I remember a conversation I had with my Uncle Eddie back in the late 80’s when I was a relative greenhorn in the business.  I’d had 3 or 4 years of buying experience under my belt and thought that I had a pretty good idea what this business was about.  Ecuador was king when it came to Shrimp, and shell-on was the only way to go.  The import cost of 50/60 count shrimp had just plummeted from 3.20/lb down to the unheard of price of 2.80/lb!  I tried to make the argument with Ed to take whatever capital we had and buy as many 50/60’s as we could lay our hands on because the item had gotten so cheap that it was selling below the base intrinsic value for the Shrimp.  Ed was very quick to point out to me that there is NO intrinsic value in Seafood.  Your fish is only worth what your customer is willing to pay you for it.

20 years later Ed’s words hold up better than ever.  Those 50/60’s that I would have felt safe selling at 2.95/lb are now worth 2.60/lb or less, and that size is one of the least affected by the deflation in the value of Shrimp.  Most sizes of Black Tiger Shrimp are at prices in the low end of the 10 year trading range.  Domestic Shrimp has taken a bigger hit, as it is now considered to be less valuable in the market than tigers, a total reversal in attitude!  Domestic Shrimp are selling at prices lower than they were in 1985, and that’s not taking into account the erosion in the value of a dollar.  In real terms the shrimp is selling for less than half what it did back then!

Let’s not limit our discussion to the value of Shrimp.  You can find similar examples with other species including Snow Crab, Warm and Cold water Lobster tails and meat, fresh Swordfish, and dozens of other products, all of which are trading at or below the prices that they’ve sold at any time during the last 20 years.  At the same point we have other items where prices are zooming.  Farmed Salmon fillets were worth 4.10/lb on average in September 2007.  They’re selling for 5.50-5.75/lb now.  Scallops are selling at or slightly ahead of the prices that they were at last year.  Frozen Swordfish prices have jumped about 20% in the last 2-3 months.  The general trend at the moment is deflationary, but there are items that are bucking the trend.

What’s the answer to the question up top?  Your fish is worth what your customer will pay for it AT THE MOMENT WHEN IT IS NEEDED.  If you’re a speculator in stocks or precious metals you may want to speculate in seafood as well.  This is perfectly fine as long as you follow basic rules.  Don’t invest before you research the market.  Be careful buying commodities that are not openly traded, where it is more difficult to establish a current market price.  Be realistic about whether you can sell your purchase when it comes time to liquidate- don’t buy more than you can move in a reasonable timeframe.  Don’t gamble what you can’t afford to lose. Finally, don’t forget- fish is not gold or even wine- it doesn’t get better with age!

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Shrimp Recipe

Shrimp has become one of the most popular seafood items consumed by Americans today. There are many reasons why this is happening. One of them being that shrimp comes in a variety of packs and count sizes, therefore you buy the pack and size you need - so there’s no waste. It is also very affordable, versatile and easy to cook.  In minutes, you can have a delicious, healthy, home-cooked meal. There are many wonderful shrimp recipes around, here’s one of my favorites:

Shrimp Scampi

Ingredients

• 1 bag of BOS’N Black Tiger Shrimp
• 1 raw onion (diced)
• 1 green pepper (diced)
• 1 bunch of scallions (diced)
• 1 box of linguini
• 1 16oz. can of tomato sauce (optional)
• A dash of: seasoned salt, garlic salt, accent and pepper
• 1/2 stick of butter

Instructions

• Boil the pasta until al dente
• Saute shrimp with butter
• Combine with diced onions, green peppers, and scallions
• Let this mixture simmer for 5 minutes
• Add tomato sauce (optional)
• Let it cool for 3 minutes
• Drain the pasta and mix it all together in a large bowl, serve with salad and garlic bread

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Is it “Mahi” or “Mahi-Mahi?”

I am often asked how to tell a male Mahi from a female and here is the answer:  females have rounded heads and males have prominent, protruding foreheads that are square-like shaped.  Mahi is starting to hit its peak, import season now, and should be readily available and attractive priced from October thru February.  Try it….you will not be disappointed!  

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Warm Water lobster tails from the Pacific Ocean - Central American fishery

The Panulirus Gracilis lobster specie is found off of the Pacific coast of Central America. It is a small lobster; 90% of the lobster tails produced are in the 3-5oz range. These warm water lobsters have a spiny bright green shell and are caught by artisanal divers using surface supplied air or breath holding. Their fishing boats are either a small skiff or a canoe.  When the water is clear, a diver can find 10-30 lobsters in one day.   

The main sources of production are Panama and Nicaragua. I am familiar with the fishery in Nicaragua and it is sustainable and well managed. I believe this hand-caught fishing method is a big reason for the health of the fishery. The lobster tail freezing facilities are located in Managua, Nicaragua, which is a city located on the Pacific coast. The lobster tails arrive to the processing plants fresh throughout the day. They are immediately processed and are once frozen. I mention this because some fisheries freeze their lobster tails at sea, thaw them out at the processing plant for cleaning etc., then, refreeze them (twice frozen).

Central American production is relatively small compared to the Caribbean. Most of the shipments are flown by air to the USA, not sent by ship container; therefore, production figures are hard to track.

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Loligo Squid

Loligo Squid is a calamari specie that is prized around the world for its flavor and consistency.  There are many different types of loligo that come from different countries.  Known as long fin squid, this specie has a transparent (plastic-like) quill for its backbone.  The US has two commercial harvested species of loligo calamari:  Loligo pealei and Loligo opalescens. 

Loligo pealei, also known as Boston squid, is commercially harvested on the East Coast from New Jersey to Maine. Prized as one of the most flavorful and naturally tender of the loliginidae, it commands a premium in the whole and cleaned calamari marketplace.  Product used to be harvested and cleaned in the USA.  Now, product is harvested in the USA, land or sea frozen, and oftentimes sent to China for processing.  Whole frozen Loligo pealei is exported to Europe or Asia.

Loligo Opalesens is known in the marketplace as California Calamari.  This specie of loligo is smaller than the pealei and although quite flavorful, it is considered tougher or chewier.  There is big retail (supermarket) demand for whole frozen of this specie packed in 3lb. window boxes.  Once again if there is good catching, product is harvested in the USA, land or sea frozen, and oftentimes sent to China for cleaning.  An El Niño or La Niña in the Pacific impacts catching quite dramatically.

Boston squid (pealei) is the most expensive of all the cleaned calamari in the US market.  It is not as abundant in the market as the imported loligo species (vulgaris, chinensis) but it is the premium standard for taste and tenderness.  The cleaned forms for these loligo species include:  Tubes and Tentacles, Tubes Only, Rings Only and Rings & Tentacles.  The size references the tube length of the cleaned squid body, 5/8 means each tube length is approximately 5-8 inches long.  8/12 means each tube length is approximately 8-12 inches long and so forth.  The tentacles are typically packed in the natural proportion that occurs….about 35%.

In my next blog I will review the imported species of Loligo squid and discuss how they compare to the domestic Loligo pealei.

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Great Seafood Sells - More than you might think

As the economy has gotten tougher and customers have looked to increase their buying power, seafood has become challenged to compete with other lower priced proteins in stores. Consequently, seafood has seen smaller increases in sales than any other proteins over the last 12 months. Consumers have transferred their food dollars from restaurants to the grocery store. In response to this and the need to work on tighter margins, retailers have been reviewing the viability of maintaining fresh seafood departments in every store. In some cases, based on the ROI per square foot, retailers have decided not to keep a service department and convert solely to a self-serve case. But, purely looking at ROI does not tell the whole story.  It does not provide the complete impact that a fresh seafood case can have on sales dollars and profits that a store generates.

One chain in particular discovered that the fresh seafood service case has a broad reaching impact on every department in the store. After removing a number of service cases, they found that store sales were suffering in most of the other departments. They noticed that a number of higher ticket items were showing softness in sales and that the average order size per customer was declining. Upon further inspection, it was determined that the withdrawal of the service seafood case drove customers to purchase their groceries elsewhere. These same customers tended to create more culinary experiences and drove the sales of many of the higher priced and potentially higher margin vegetable, dairy, grocery and meat items. Where the average consumer might have spent $75.00 per visit, the average service seafood case consumer would spend $125 per visit. Although the seafood department may represent only 2-3% of total sales in retail - the truth is that it has a greater impact on the success of the store. The results would lead one to believe that by effective merchandising of fresh seafood, highlighting its health and convenience benefits, and the cross merchandising of products, the percentage of customers who frequent the seafood case increases. This also generates a new contingent of customers who are interested in creating a culinary experience, not just a meal.

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Welcome!

 This is your place to learn about a wide variety of fresh and frozen seafood.  Posts will cover a variety of topics.  Expect to see focus features on individual species of fish such as Cod or Pollock.  You’ll also see articles comparing different species of Shrimp, Crab, or Lobster.  Some posts will have pictures of fish and will teach you how to handle and prepare them.  Other posts will focus on the seafood commodity markets, helping you to anticipate rises and falls.  We’ll explain the different species of wild Salmon, the different countries of origin for farmed Salmon, and how to choose which to use.  Additionally we will have a recipe section with our favorite seafood recipes and a glossary of fish terms that may stump you.  The seafood experts who will be contributing to this website have an average of 20 years of experience.  In general, our focus is on posting and publishing articles, as such we will be moderated and are not likely to post many responses.  We will review your responses however, and will do our best to reply to you off-line.  Feel free to email us with suggestions for future posts as well.  Again, this website is for you.  Thank you for your attention, and welcome to seafoodexperts.net!

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Confusion reigns in the Gulf….

I have only been buying the shrimp in earnest here at Stavis Seafoods for the last five years, so my historical perspective is a bit skewed when it comes to all time low pricing in certain markets. This year for sure, we have hit the ALL TIME low since Hurricane Katrina and beyond when it comes to domestic shell-on and peeled shrimp.  Up here in the New England states we really try and stick to using white shrimp from the Gulf, as our consumer tastes just prefer milder wild shrimp; but, we still keep our pulse on the brown markets as well. When 16-20 white shell-on domestic shrimp hit bottom about three years ago, many of the importers who were only focusing on tiger shrimp and other Asian species jumped in and bought truckload after truckload.

This year there are many factors in play that have driven the price to below the record low of three years ago.  The fuel costs have been relatively low, the fishing in the Gulf has been exceptional, the import prices of tiger shrimp have remained fairly stable due to lower production and the currency exchange and, frankly, the economy is still NOT improved enough for importers and speculators to jump in and make container load purchases unless they have prior commitments. These factors have resulted in lower and lower prices of both shell-on shrimp and peeled shrimp.

So are we at the bottom? Well, this is the BIG question for all of the buyers large and small out there.  If there is a significant weather event (hurricane season is upon us) and fishing gets interrupted, the prices could creep back up.  If suppliers hold their inventories and the economy does not improve, then the “sales for cash” could keep markets remaining weak. We are about to come into the Mexican wild season starting in October and if they have good catches, then the prices could remain low in the Gulf as well.

When my dad, Ed Stavis bought the shrimp here for over 30 years he would always say, “dealing in all of these markets is fun and interesting,” and boy was he right! He was the master and we still have the most animated discussions over the shrimp markets today.  Whether or not we are at the bottom of this market, the good news in this economy is that consumers can enjoy wild caught domestic shrimp in many forms at really affordable prices, and it should be on any and all menus in restaurants and in retail chains across America.

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Fresh Swordfish

While fresh swordfish can be enjoyed year round, perhaps the best time to do it is during the months of September and October. Off the coast of Halifax, Nova Scotia and surrounding areas just north and south of Boston lies the cold, clean, waters of the Emerald Basin, home to some of the largest, fattiest, and best tasting swordfish found anywhere in the world.

Harvested by long line Canadian fishing vessels, these large, Atlantic Ocean swordfish are prized for their freshness, firm meat, and taste. The cold water environment makes the fish nice and fat, giving the meat a lot of flavor, similar to marbling in beef. You can’t get these fish year round. They are mostly caught between late August and early November, with the majority of the fish landed in September and October.

If you are a lover of swordfish, now is the time to savor what you already enjoy. If you are curious as to what swordfish tastes like, you will get no better opportunity to have the “real deal” in these next two months. So the next time you wish to have swordfish, ask if it’s Canadian Basin swordfish. You will be glad that you did.

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