Importer Concerned At Crayfish Prices

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31586, 25 January 1968, Page 20

Importer Concerned At Crayfish Prices

(New Zealand Press Association) GISBORNE, January 24. New Zealand suppliers of crayfish for the American market have been told that they could price themselves out of the market by Mr W. C. Eacho, jun., the president of the Washington Fish Exchange.

His company is the largest importer and distributor of sea foods in the BaltimoreWashington area. He is visiting New Zealand suppliers to expand the market and check on the present high price of crayfish tails, which is at a record level in the United States. Mr Eacho said the final retail price of lobster to restaurants in the United States was $3 a pound. Some restaurants had taken lobster off the menu and replaced it with cheaper foods. The present cost of a meal in the United States with New Zealand lobster featured was as high as $5.25. American restaurants added two-thirds to the cost of the actual food to give them their selling price. Mr Eacho said that he had warned New Zealand suppliers that the present price was dangerously high and that ultimately the pendulum must swing against them. If producers could reduce the price by about 15 per cent it would b e better for all in the long run. If the price problem could be overcome, there was room for expansion in the trade as the main lobster suppliers in America were dying out and

new sources were needed, Mr Eacho said. Mr Eacho said that he was also investigating the possibility of taking other New Zealand fish, notably lemon sole fillets and whole sole.