Image: Mercadona / FIS

Mercadona sells shrimp per unit and hoteliers look for substitutes

SPAIN
Friday, October 06, 2023, 07:00 (GMT + 9)

Restaurants, supermarkets and hoteliers adapt to the needs of the consumer and this partly explains the drop in shrimp sales despite its low price. Faced with this situation, shrimp businessmen are forced to rethink the business to try to recover the levels of demand they once had.

Shrimp is considered a luxury product, although its price in the markets today does not reflect it, but that is the association that the consumer makes when he passes by a supermarket shelf or is in front of a restaurant menu. In a fishery in which large volumes are handled, thinking about supermarket consumption per unit forces us to rethink capture and marketing strategies. On the other hand, in the hotel sector, in addition to the search for alternative products, although of lower quality, there is a reluctance to partner with a sector that is affected by great political and union instability that conditions it.

Source: Mercadona

Since October 1 in Vigo you can find entrepreneurs from the Argentine fishing industry almost anywhere and of course at the Conxemar fair that has brought them together. Here we usually take the pulse of the market, see more clearly where Europe, the main market for frozen shrimp, is looking.

The verification of a demand that has changed, that no longer asks for and possibly will no longer require containers but rather pallets, forces us to rethink a way of capturing and marketing. But changes in consumer habits have also led entrepreneurs in the sector to rethink a production system that must be discussed with authorities and unions.

Beyond the speculations that can be made, reality is reflected in the commercial decisions made by important leaders in the Spanish sector. Maria Sapiña, director of Mercadona, confirmed to Revista Puerto that shrimp consumption has fallen very significantly and that the fact that it is considered a luxury product does not help, given that it is discarded despite its low price.

“Seafood is considered an expensive product, so with the current situation, consumption is shifting to low-cost species and varieties. In general, shrimp consumption is decreasing considerably and the price does not matter, because it is considered a luxury product, consumed at Christmas and special dates and little else. In stores, we offer the possibility for shrimp to be purchased individually, because boxes are not sold. We tested smaller box formats, with 6 or 10 shrimp and they were not sold. They want the box open and take two, three or one, the sale is very limited, at least in our market,” Sapiña clearly points out.

In hotels the situation is not better, the stockpiling of merchandise that used to be done has already been forgotten, purchasing managers prefer to handle small volumes to guarantee rotation, but they are also reformulating restaurant menus for an audience that their income is affected as a result of the economic “crisis”.

Source: Anedilco

Eduardo Ruiz, director of Anedilco, the largest distributor of frozen products in Spain, tells us: “the hotelier wants to continue providing a menu similar to the one he offered in economic terms, a menu that does not increase in price. He cannot transfer production costs to his menu because he loses customers, given that there is a flight of customers towards home consumption. So what he is doing is shifting towards other products and they don't have to be just the expensive ones, he rethinks the entire offer, what he is looking for are substitutes for each reference with others that may have an analogous character when it comes to feeding.

PUERTO MAGAZINE: Has wild shrimp been replaced by farmed shrimp?

EDUARDO RUIZ: It is not a substitute, but it is a valid complement to this, the vannamei also has a year of price stabilization which can contribute to the hotelier making that decision. Those decisions that the hotelier makes then have to be endorsed by the final consumer who will accept or not the menu... It is a complex year, it is a year of changes.

Although the issue of costs is important, the low price of shrimp does not fully explain this change in demand and looking for an answer, Ruiz's reflection on the matter is disturbing: “I think the problem is more linked to the origin. We historically believe that the origin of this product is greatly affected by political stability or instability and even at the union level. There is always some type of condition that sometimes covers the explanation that we want to seek from here for the natural market condition, I think that affects it quite a bit. It is a market that does not have the stability it should have.”

The view of buyers of Argentine shrimp shows the weaknesses of the product, the problems it must face, but also allows us to begin to think about the strategies that must be developed to reverse this situation. No one can escape political instability and perhaps precisely for this reason it will be necessary for the sector to unite, even more so to buckle up to be able to face the challenges presented by marketing abroad.

Source: Revista Puerto

In the Argentine pavilion of Conxemar, where a majority of companies present have interests in frozen shrimp on board, the topic of debate has been this. They know that except in some specific markets, shrimp in two-kilo boxes is no longer an attractive product as it was until not long ago and it is necessary to generate a change. They are clear that the change must be promoted by them and for that they will need the support of the administration, the unions and public opinion. A great challenge arises for the sector.

Author: Kaina Fernández | Revista Puerto (Traslated from the original in Spanish)

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