End of shout era for Peterhead fishmarket
4th December 2024
The board of Peterhead Port Authority (PPA) has announced that it has approved the introduction of an electronic auction within the fishmarket. PPA launched a wide-ranging consultation process on the subject earlier this year, and the results, it says, showed overwhelming support for its introduction.
PPA chief executive Graeme Reid said: “This is an exciting moment for the port and Peterhead community. Peterhead Port Authority has invested around £70m in facilities in the port in the last 10 years, and this next investment will further reinforce and future-proof Peterhead Port’s position as the leading fish port in Europe.”
He said PPA staff had met with representatives from stakeholder groups to consider how challenges could be resolved. “The board of Peterhead Port Authority are now content solutions to these challenges have been found,” he said.
Peterhead, as the premier whitefish port in Europe, has seen a huge amount of investment in recent years, with large-scale improvements including a new fishmarket, harbour deepening project and new ice plant.
The introduction of an electronic auction is bound to be controversial, as has been the case in other ports. The nature of an e-auction means that longstanding traditions, customs and buying patterns are irreversibly disrupted, in some cases cease forever. It is inevitable that there are a wide range of conflicting views around such a development, particularly when viewed across the spectrum of skippers, looking for as many buyers as possible to hopefully force prices up, and buyers, where an increased number of competitive bidders could leave some businesses struggling to procure enough raw material.
Such a change also impacts external businesses such as fish hauliers. The board admits that the consultation highlighted a number of challenges, which PPA has been reviewing and seeking solutions to.
A Peterhead source, who asked not to be named, said: “It remains to be seen how it works out. My feelings are it will push the prices up, but might work out OK for buyers who are buying in large quantity. It will maybe not be so good for those buying a few boxes.
“Some boats are confident it will remove the perceived practice of buyers ‘sharing shots’, where they are agreeing between them to buy fish, then splitting it afterwards.”
Another source simply said: “It seems to have worked everywhere else.”
Work will now commence on detailed design of the e-auction system, involving further engagement with stakeholder groups, with a view to the new system going live in early 2026.
This story was taken from the latest issue of Fishing News. For more up-to-date and in-depth reports on the UK and Irish commercial fishing sector, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.50 here.
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