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Seafood Prices in S’pore Are Increasing & Will Set to Increase More During CNY

2022-11-06 , 1:00 pm

For those of you who dislike seafood or are allergic to them, lucky you.

Seafood lovers may not be so happy about this as seafood prices are increasing due to limited supplies.

You can watch this video for a summary of what has happened:

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Supplies are Affected Due to Monsoon

One of the reasons the supplies are affected is due to the monsoon. Bad weather causes seafood like prawns, red grouper, and pomfret to be in shorter supply.

Mr Kelvin Lim, the director of Ariki Seafood, said that the supply of fresh seafood from his Malaysian and Indonesian suppliers has decreased over the past two months.

Mr Kenny Chua, the director of Hup Peng Trading, said that the effects of bad weather on seafood supply usually start in November, when the monsoon season starts.

The monsoon in places such as Malaysia prevented fishermen from going out to sea. The level of supply for red grouper and pomfret dropped by 50 per cent.

The Rising Cost of Petrol is Another Reason

Other than the weather, the rising cost of petrol in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand are contributing to the decreasing supply.

While some of us are here cutting down on the usage of our cars due to increasing petrol prices, fishermen do not want to spend so much petrol on their boats too.

This problem actually began four to five months ago. Mr Lim added that the types of fish most affected by this are red grouper and pomfret, with the level of supply for both kinds of fish dropping by 50 per cent.

As such, Mr Lim had to increase his prices to customers, including retail shoppers, by around 10 to 15 per cent.

Mr Chua on the other hand, increased his prices by 15 per cent. He now charges S$26 to S$28 per kg for red grouper, whereas he charged S$24 last month.

How Suppliers Handle This Issue

Suppliers handle this by stocking up as much as they can.

Mr Lim added that his business is not as affected as he imports only around 20 per cent of fresh seafood. The other 80 per cent of the seafood is reared and harvested in Singapore farms.

But wait: Chinese New Year is coming, which means…

Prices are Expected to Rise Even More During the Chinese New Year

Prices are expected to increase further as Chinese New Year draws closer on 22 January 2023.

Mr Chua expects the seafood suppliers to increase their prices by more than 20 per cent.

The Seafood Industries Association advised the public to stock up to prepare for the festive seasons. In addition, there is currently no shortage of supply of frozen seafood.