Scallop prices, WTF
Some of you may have been wondering why scallop prices are so high. I was wondering the same thing, so I dug into it a bit.
Apparently the 2012 - 2013 recruitment class of scallops (new scallops that were added to the population through reproduction) was unusually large, which meant greater scallop landings and lower price levels for the past five to ten-ish years. That class is coming to the end of its lifecycle and subsequent recruitment classes have not been as large. This is not the result of overfishing, just nature doing its thing. The stock is healthy and is being managed sustainably, but the lower recruitment classes have meant cuts to the quota (amount of scallops allowed to be caught). This means lower supply and higher prices. Add the inflationary pressures we've seen on fuel, labor, packaging and other inputs and you get even higher prices.
There are likely lower priced scallops out there. It is also likely that they have been treated with water or another chemical (such as tripolyphosphate) to artificially increase their weight to enable a retailer to sell them at a lower price. I've discussed this in these emails before, but I will give a quick re-cap.
If you were a scallop dealer and bought 10 lbs of scallops for $10/lb ($100 total) you would need to sell those scallops for at least $10 to recover your cost. If, after you you treated those 10lbs of scallops, they now weigh 14 lbs, you only need to sell those scallops for $100/14 = $7.15/lb to recover your cost, which is a significant difference. This happens so frequently that many dealers don't even disclose that they do it. Further, the FDA does not require this disclosure, which is ridiculous. Most of the time, tripolyphosphate is in low enough amounts that you wouldn't notice. In higher amounts, it can cause indigestion and general allergic reactions.
As for scallops that are simply soaked in water (without tripolyphosphate), it still artificially increases the weight and makes for a scallop that does not properly sear and will leach water into your pan at home. Ultimately, you end up paying the higher price for the scallop anyway (after removing the water weight), just with a lower quality experience. Does that make sense?
Our scallops are 100% dry pack, meaning that they are never treated with water or any chemical to extend shelf life or artificially increase their weight. They are also harvested in the Georges Bank/North Channel area of the Atlantic, which is known to yield the best quality scallops in the world. In sum, they are expensive, but there is a reason.
OK, that was a good trifecta of biology/environmental science, economics and seafood industry unscrupulousness. I hope you enjoyed it.
