how much to pay the fisherman for his catch. 



"You have to know what you can sell it for before 

 you can figure out how much you can buy it for," says 

 Jim Howell, manager of Clark's Seafood in Beaufort. 



Doug Brady, vice president of Meridian Seafood 

 that includes Ottis' Fish Market in Morehead City, 

 spends most of each day on the telephone, calling up 

 and down the East Coast to investigate the market. 

 He knows that what's happening in states like New 

 York and Maryland has an impact on the market in 

 this state. 



The fisherman docks his boat and unloads his catch 

 by the basketful. There, the fish may be culled, sized 

 and "cut" — processed by heading, gutting or filleting. 



From here, the road from catch to consumption 

 becomes less well-marked. Howell describes the 

 various routes a fish might take: "A fish could go from 

 the packing house to a retail market and then to the 

 public. Or it could go from a packing house to a 

 processor and from there to a retail market. Or it 

 could go from a packing house to a processor to 

 another processor and then finally to the public." 

 Such is the complexity of the seafood market. 



At each step in the marketing chain, the price goes 

 up because each handler has to make a profit for him- 

 self. And everybody wants to make 20 to 30 cents per 

 pound on the fish he handles, says Howell. But he 

 adds that the price isn't arbitrary. "There's a market 

 price out there. You can't just keep adding 10 cents to 

 the price." 



Most of Howell's sales are at the wholesale level. He 

 says a wholesale price is really a discount price. 

 "We're giving them a better price if they'll buy a bulk 

 amount." 



Howell establishes three price levels for his 

 wholesale customers and charges them according to 

 how far he has to ship the product, how much the 

 customer buys, and how good a customer it is. Retail 

 prices are generally higher because tax is added and 

 because the product has been through more steps in 

 the marketing process. 



Nature often adds a little extra uncertainty when it 

 comes to pricing seafood. Occasional gluts of a species 

 can drive the price down since only a limited amount 

 of fresh fish can be used at any given time. On the 

 other hand, scarceness of a species can force a dealer 

 to buy out of state to fill demand. 



"A lot of dealing with fish is speculation," says 

 Howell. "You play the seasons. In a glut, you put 

 some fish in the freezer and hold it." 



In the winter, for example, when finfish are plen- 

 tiful, dealers often freeze a lot of species such as floun- 

 der, croaker and trout. 



When supplies of a particular species are plentiful in 

 this state and the price begins to drop, a dealer might 

 ship his product to northern markets such as New 

 York, Boston, Philadelphia or Baltimore. 



The Fulton Fish Market in New York is the largest 



seafood wholesaler in the country. Fulton information 

 officer Richard Lord says the market deals with an 

 average half million pounds of seafood each day and 

 about 140 million pounds per year. In October 1984, 

 the market sold over a million pounds in one day. 



The sheer size of the Fulton Fish Market has 

 resulted in the notion that it controls seafood prices 

 along the East Coast. But Gary Van Housen, Sea 

 Grant's seafood marketing specialist, says supply and 

 demand control the price of seafood, and Fulton just 

 mirrors supply and demand. Therefore, when prices 

 increase dramatically, it probably indicates a tighter 

 supply. If the price drops suddenly, it could mean 

 there is a surplus supply. 



Because of the seasonal nature of most species and 

 the fact that seafood is a perishable item, seafood 

 prices are always volatile, says Lord. "Whiting, for ex- 

 ample, can go from 10 cents a pound to $1.25 a pound 

 over the year." 



In the past year. Lord has seen an increased interest 

 in seafood. But in order for that interest to continue to 

 grow, there must be more attention paid to quality, he 

 says. "I still see a lot of horrible stuff sold. Unless 

 every step in the chain takes care of the catch, it hurts 

 the whole business. Fish has so many benefits. And 

 humans have an innate sense of what is good to eat. 

 People eat things that taste good, and fish only tastes 

 good when it's fresh." 



Brady is more optimistic about the market here. 

 "The thing that will help in this state is that fresh 

 seafood, from a consumer's standpoint, is finally com- 

 ing of age. As that happens, the market will increase." 



— Nancy Davis 



Photo by Scott Taylor 



One of the first steps in the marketing chain 



