7 days ago
King of Fish dethroned by costs: Turbot vanishes from seafood restaurants after labour, energy and shipping price hikes
Price hikes are forcing restaurants to ditch a menu staple dubbed the 'King of Fish'.
Turbot is increasingly vanishing from plates served up across the UK following surges in costs for labour, energy and shipping, top chefs and retailers have warned.
Fans of the fish dish savour its flesh and flavour - but it is now proving prohibitively expensive to source and serve for outlets already facing cost of living pressures.
Among those raising the alert is Tommy Banks, chef patron of two Michelin-starred venues in Yorkshire - the Black Swan, in OIdstead, and Roots, in York.
He was full of praise for turbot itself, saying: 'It's the king of the sea, a beautiful fish.'
But he told of the soaring costs involved in providing it, saying how the fish cost £18 per kilogram before the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic but 'as much as £65' these days.
He said: 'You can't afford to put it on the menu.
'And if you do, the amount you'd have to charge for it, there's just no value whatsoever.
'There really isn't cheap or cheaper fish any more - but turbot in particular is just outrageous and you can't afford to use it.'
He described how, during a recent tasting night staged at his Roots restaurant, one of the dishes involving turbot could only include 'literally a sliver' for each diner.
Mr Banks added: 'We were like, "Well, we need to make turbot the smallest because it's so expensive" - it was costing £9 for 60g of fillet.'
Some restaurants have halted ordering turbot at all, according to Adrian Nunn, director of fish-selling firm The Upper Scale.
He told of bosses opting instead for cheaper options such as Dover sole, the Telegraph reported.
He said: 'I don't think I've got one restaurant using turbot - they used to and they've stopped, they can't afford to.'
Other seafood offerings appearing to be too pricey for many these days include langoustines, lobster, caviar and truffle, of which Mr Nunn said: 'You'll only really find in Mayfair now.'
He added: 'It's not just the prime fish - it's all fish, whether it's frozen or whether it's sardines, mackerel, whether it's turbot, Dover soles, it's all gone up.'
Adding to pressure is increased demand for fish from Spanish and French buyers willing to pay more, which has driven up the price for British firms.
Mr Nunn said: 'We buy in North of England, because there's not so many Spanish and French buyers up there.
'They'll just outbid us. We'd love to buy turbot at £10 per kilo, but they'll pay £20, £25, £30 so that's it.'
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that white fish fillets have leapt in average price per kilogram by more than 28 per cent in the past three years.
That cost hit £20.59 in January this year - compared to £15.57 in the same month of 2011, £11.48 a decade earlier and just 53p back in January 1971.
Keeping fish chilled has hit traders especially hard with rising energy bills in recent years.
Businesses have also been tussling with high inflation as well as the Government's increases to the minimum wage and National Insurance contributions in Chancellor Rachel Reeves's Budget last October.
She hiked the rate of employer National Insurance contributions to 15 per cent and reduced the threshold for paying the tax from £9,100 to £5,000.
Meanwhile, i nflation leapt to 3.5 per cent in April this year, according to the latest Bank of England figures.
That was up from 2.6 per cent the previous month and 1.7 per cent last September.
Laky Zervudachi, director of sustainability at fish wholesaler Direct Seafoods, said: 'This year we have seen increasing inflationary pressure on virtually all species of seafood, whether it be simple staples like cod and haddock, to the more exclusive species like scallops and lobsters.
'As always, there are many factors that combine to create these increases, not least are a number of precautionary measures that have been taken by international bodies to help preserve fishing stocks around the world.'
He also described how French and Spanish buyers especially were stepping up demand, pushing up the prices for UK companies.
