Huge crowds rush to stock up on seafood in Easter lead up

This year is expected to be massive for seafood traders, who anticipate huge crowds amid a price drop in normally expensive products such as lobsters and other crustaceans.

With seafood exports having significantly declined due to the pandemic and tensions with China, there has been a much wider supply for Aussies on offer, prompting discounts on some usually luxurious products.

Coles and Woolworths are both selling rock lobsters for just $20 each, with fresh tiger prawns being able to be purchased at Coles for $22kg.

The rock lobsters – imported from Western Australia – are normally sold for more double that price.

In anticipation of huge crowds, Sydney Fish Markets have extended their trading hours on Good Friday, opening from 5am to 5pm.

“We’re expecting up to 50,000 people will come through the site across the easter long weekend,” a spokeswoman for Sydney Fish Markets told 9News.

“To put that in perspective, on a big Christmas we can get up to a 100,000 people.”

The spokeswoman said that due to lower levels of exports, Australians now have a wider selection of seafood available.

“We are seeing a lot more supply and of a lot more different types of species, there is a lot more available,” she said.

Woolworths said it expects to sell 29,000kg of barramundi, 130,000kg Tasmanian Atlantic salmon, 225,000kg Australian oysters, while Coles is expecting to sell 90,000kg of Tasmanian salmon, 16,000kg of Cone Bay barramundi and 150,000kg of prawns.

Veronica Papacosta, CEO of Seafood Industry Australia, said this year will see an increase in seafood lunches as families come together to celebrate who were unable to last year.

“Now we are entering a post-COVID world and the easing of restrictions means families are coming together to celebrate,” she said.

“Good Friday has long been associated with eating seafood and is one of the busiest days of the year for fishmongers with popular choices this year tipped to include barramundi, Red Snapper and of course, prawns.”

“Due to the extreme weather events in NSW over the past week, oysters coming out of the NSW North Coast will be out of the market for the next few weeks, so this will impact supplies of Sydney Rock Oysters,” she said.

“However, some suppliers harvested before the rains and there are still a number of farmers along the NSW South Coast who will be harvesting in the lead-up to Easter.”