reLAKSation 460
Fish n’chip Festival: Last week we mentioned the Dorset Seafood Festival in regard to ways to encourage consumers to eat more fish and seafood. Our attention has been drawn to another Festival being held next week, to celebrate ‘traditional Scottish fish n’chips. Unlike the Dorset Seafood Festival which runs over just one weekend, this celebration of Scottish fish and chips lasts for two to three weeks.
Around 500 people sit down at trestle tables every day to a deep fried dinner of fish and chips. It is estimated that they eat their way through a tonne of chips and even more fish. The food is served on paper plates with plastic knives and forks and sachets of tomato ketchup. Diners are entertained by the bagpipes.
As well as celebrating fish and chips, the proceeds of the festival help fund projects in Rwanda. So even the less well off benefit from this event.
However, anyone wanting to attend this celebration of Scottish fish and chips will have to search high and low through Scottish towns and country and even then they will be disappointed. This celebration of a great Scottish tradition cannot be unfortunately be found anywhere in Scotland. Instead, those wanting to join in this Festival will need to go to the small city of Barga in Northern Tuscany, Italy where the celebration starts on July 23rd through to August 16th.
According to the Guardian newspaper, the connection between Barga and Scotland began with a visit by the Duke of Argyll during the 1890’s during which he engaged the services of some local forestry workers to work on his estates back in Scotland. These workers took their families and more families followed. By the end of the First World War there were over 4,000 Italians living in Scotland and although many worked in traditional industries, others established ice cream parlours, cafes and fish and chip shops. Estimates of Italian descendents are thought to number up to 100,000, the most famous of who is the singer songwriter Paolo Nutini whose family own a fish and chip shop in Paisley just outside Glasgow.
It is a delight to learn of this traditional event but it is a shame that anyone wanting to attend has to travel to Italy, for nothing similar exists in Scotland. Instead, the efforts to persuade Scottish consumers to eat more fish are directed at the more affluent end of market rather than those who eat most populist fish and chips.
What difference?: The effects of higher salmon prices are now noticeable even in the US where the number of supermarkets offering farmed salmon on promotion is noticeably down. Those that are promoting salmon are not as generous with the discounts as they used to be. Over the Easter weekend, seventy four US supermarket chains placed salmon on promotion and many were charging just $5.99/lb for salmon fillet.
The fourth of July is an ideal opportunity for many Americans to get out the grill and farmed salmon has recently been a good choice for the barbeque. Yet, higher prices have reduced the number of offers on farmed salmon with just thirty four stores promoting salmon. Whilst one or two stores have salmon at $6.99/lb, the average figure seems to have risen to about $7.99/lb. That salmon is no longer the value for money choice is also apparent from the fact that the fourth of July, despite being such an important holiday, only attracted six more stores to promote salmon than in the previous week.
The list of promotions for the holiday week and the week beforehand is as follows:
27th June
A&P - Atlantic salmon steaks $8.99/lb
Acme Markets - Salmon portions 6 oz $4.49
Albertsons - Atlantic salmon portions 6oz $4.79
Big Y - Fresh salmon steak farm raised $6.95/lb
Bruno’s - Fresh cold water Atlantic salmon $7.99/lb
Food City - Salmon fillets farm raised in Norway/Scotland/Chile/Canada $6.99/lb
Food Emporium - Fresh salmon portions 5oz. $3.99: Fulton fresh organic salmon fillet $14.99/lb
Foodland - Atlantic salmon fillet $8.99/lb
Giant - Farm raised salmon fillet $7.99/lb
Grand Market - Norwegian salmon fillet $10.99/lb
Harveys - Salmon fillet fresh farm raised $6.99/lb,
Hornbacher’s - Atlantic salmon fillets fresh farm raised $8.98/lb
Jewel-Osco - Fresh farm raised salmon portions 6 oz $4.49
Key Food - Fresh Atlantic Salmon Fillets 8.99/lb: Fresh Salmon steaks $7.99/lb
Ralphs - Fresh salmon portions farm raised colour added 6oz. $4.50
Randalls - Fresh Norwegian salmon fillets farm raised colour added $6.99/lb
Redners - Farm raised salmon fillet $8.99/lb
Roche Bros - Salmon steaks $6.99/lb
Shaws - Fresh boneless salmon fillet $8.99/lb
Shoprite - Farmed boneless salmon fillet $7.99/lb
Smith’s - Atlantic salmon fillets fresh farm raised $8.99/lb
Stew Leonards - Naked salmon fillet $7.99/lb
The Food Emporium - Fresh salmon portions 5oz. $3.99: Fulton fresh organic salmon fillet $14.99/lb
Times - Fresh salmon roast $7.69/lb airfl
Times - Fresh salmon roast $7.69/lb airflown
Tom Thumb -Fresh Norwegian salmon fillets farm raised $6.99/lb
Turcos - Fresh salmon fillet $8.99/lb
Weis - Norwegian salmon portions 6oz $4.49
Wiseway Foods - Atlantic salmon steaks $6.99/lb
4th July
Acme Fresh Market – Fresh salmon fillet $7.99/lb
Acme Markets – Fresh salmon portions 6oz $4.49
Alberstsons – Fresh salmon portion 6oz $4.99
Balduccis – Fresh Signature salmon steak $10.99/lb
Bigg’s – Fresh Scottish organic salmon fillet $11.99/lb
BiLo – Fresh farmed Canadian salmon fillet $7.99/lb
Bloom – Fresh salmon fillets $6.99/lb
Brookshire Bros – Imported Atlantic salmon fillet $6.99/lb
Buehler’s – Farmed salmon fillets $9.99/lb
Copps – Fresh Atlantic salmon fillet $7.99/lb
Dominicks – Fresh Norwegian salmon fillet $7.99/lb
Food Emporium – Fresh cut premium salmon fillet $10.99/lb
Foodland - Atlantic salmon fillet $9.99/lb
Genuardis – Fresh Scottish salmon fillet $7.99/lb
Giant- Fresh farm raised salmon fillet $7.99/lb
Giant Food- Fresh boneless salmon fillet $7.99/lb
Grand Market – Fresh Norwegian salmon fillet $9.99/lb
Grand Union – Fresh salmon steak $7.99/lb
Heinen’s - Fresh Norwegian salmon fillet $9.99/lb
Hugo’s – Fresh Canadian salmon fillet $9.98/lb
King’s- Black Pearl Scottish salmon fillet $10.99/lb
Kuhn’s – Fresh salmon steaks $10.49/lb
Landis – Fresh Canadian salmon steak $6.99/lb
Mars – Fresh Atlantic salmon steak $6.99/lb
Meijer – Fresh skinless salmon fillet $8.79/lb
Pick ‘n Save – Farm raised Atlantic salmon fillet $7.99/lb
Publix – Fresh farm raised salmon fillet $8.99/lb
Rainbow Foods – Farm raised Atlantic salmon fillet $7.99/lb
Shaws – Fresh salmon portion 6oz $3.99
Shopnsave- Fresh farm raised salmon fillet $7.99/lb
Shoprite – Fresh farm raised salmon fillet $7.99/lb
Stew Leonards – Fresh naked salmon fillet $7.99/lb
Times – Fresh Atlantic salmon fillet £9.49/lb
Weis – Fresh Norwegian salmon portions 6oz $4.49
Humber Seafood Summit: We were fortunate to be invited to the first Humber Seafood Summit which took place in Grimsby this week.
Grimsby is recognised as the best developed industry cluster in the UK and is responsible for processing over 70% of the seafood eaten in the UK. This means that there is a high concentration of expert and knowledgeable people working in the area and this was reflected in those attending this excellent meeting.
In their report of the event, Fishupdate.com give the impression that the focus of the meeting was sustainability, probably because the meeting was sub-titled ‘Sustaining our future from sea to plate’. However the meeting covered much more, ranging from ways to develop the seafood market to getting the message to the consumer.
Conferences and meetings can often be so uninspiring with speakers droning on about endless irrelevancies but the Seafood Summit was largely relevant and to the point. The variety of topics covered seemed to hold the audience’s attention through what would have been a very long day.
What was of most interest to us, at Callander McDowell, was the recognition of how important aquaculture has become to the fish and seafood industry. Fish farming is now just as important as fishing, if not more so, to ensuring a long term supply of fish and seafood to consumers.
This was an outstanding meeting which focused on the issues. Hopefully this will become an annual event which we would recommend others to attend.