Supermarkets catch quality seafood, thanks to lockdown

THE quality of fish in supermarkets is increasing because of lockdown, retailers have said.

The collapse of the catering industry and the sustained low demand in the restaurant sector as it reopens has meant the fishing industry has struggled to offload top-quality products.

Waitrose has taken on British clams and cockles that would usually be sent to Michelin-starred restaurants, and will be selling them from fish counters in 150 stores, while Morrisons has set up a summer fish bar, selling restaurant-quality Dover sole, scallops, squid, turbot and monkfish tails.

The Dorset Shellfish Company has never supplied produce directly to supermarkets before due to normal high demand from the restaurant trade. Now, it has struck a deal with Waitrose.

Tommy Russell, a Dorset fisherman from the Poole Harbour clam and cockle fishery, said: “With MSC certification we can proudly say that both our clams and cockles are sustainable and we’re helping to protect our sea’s fish stocks for future generations. The quality is so high that we typically supply the restaurant trade, but with the food service industry closed until now, Waitrose has shown its support and it has become an important lifeline during these difficult times.”

George Clark, of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), added: “In stocking these shellfish items from Poole Harbour, Waitrose becomes the first big national retailer to offer fresh

‘We typically supply restaurants, but with them closed, Waitrose has become an important lifeline’

certified sustainable live clams on their fish counters with the blue MSC label.”

Rex Goldsmith, who runs the Chelsea Fishmonger in west London, said most quality fishmongers sold highstandard fish before the crisis. However, he added that prices of top-level fish such as wild halibut and turbot had plummeted during the lockdown due to lack of restaurant demand and prices are now only just starting to rise again.

Sydney Smith, the Smith of Smiths, that witty, worldly-wise clergyman from the days of Jane Austen, congratulated a friend who’d gained, through literary journalism, a high reputation, and might “eat it out in turbot at great people’s houses”. Those were the days, when talk of books won admiration, expressed in the finest of fish. But just now we can rejoice in the turbot, if not in literary discussions. There’s more than turbot, too: incomparable Dover sole, scallops and the kind of clams from the south coast that we may know by the French name palourdes. All these have found their way into good supermarkets such as Waitrose because so many restaurant outlets are closed or empty. The seafood has thrived during a lockdown gap, and, if it is still pretty pricey, it’s one treat that is good for you – and for the fishermen.