July 7, 2012

A reversal of fortune - the price of Lobster meat

From The Associated Press:
Forget hot dogs, glut means cheap lobster prices
A glut has driven down lobster prices in Maine — bringing cheer to lobster-loving consumers at the start of the state's tourist season but gloom among lobstermen.

Retailers have been selling small soft-shell lobsters in the Portland area for an unusually low $3.79 to $4.99 a pound. At those prices, lobsters have been selling for less than the per-pound price of bologna at many supermarket deli counters.

Zain Nemazie, of Austin, Texas, was expecting low lobster prices — but not this low — while on vacation in Maine with his family.

"This is as good as it gets," Nemazie said late last week after paying $4.59 a pound for large 1 1/2-pound lobsters at a seafood shop on Portland's waterfront. "We're from Texas, where we'd be paying at least $12 a pound."

At Docks Seafood in South Portland, owner Bob Coppersmith said customers were eating up the low prices, including a deal where he was selling five small live lobsters for $25. He later dropped it to five for $24.
Makes you wonder how the lobster fishermen are doing -- their costs are still going up and now their profits are going down. Supply and demand. Posted by DaveH at July 7, 2012 5:27 PM