Within the group of Central Fish Market products considered top-range, i.e., those that sell for more than €15/kg, it has been found that more of them have seen their prices fall than rise so far this year.
The trend starts to appear in goods ranging from €8 to €15/kg and becomes clearer as prices rise.
This is the main conclusion of the study on price evolution from January to October 2011 carried out by Market management, which attributes the trend to the effects of the financial crisis and changing purchasing habits on the part of consumers. The categories that have taken the biggest hit are the fresh prawn, fresh Dublin Bay prawn, fresh wild sea bass, fresh wild bream, fresh langoustine prawn, frozen cooked eel, live red lobster and frozen langoustine tail.

The study also reveals that the most affordable species categories, i.e., those that sell for €2 to €5/kg, are experiencing the opposite trend: more products have seen price rises rather than falls. Of note are the fresh cultivated clam, fresh cultivated bream, frozen shrimp, frozen clean cuttlefish, frozen Chinese squid and fresh whiting of over 500 g.