This small fish is making big market waves
Niv Bavarsky
On Wednesdays, the Brew’s Sam Klebanov highlights a fascinating stock, commodity, or other asset that’s worth your attention.
Amid a shortage of anchovies, prices for the teeny fish are surging—which could inflate your grocery bill even if you shun Caesar salad. That’s because the umami treat is a vital ingredient in the fishmeal used by the $500 billion farmed seafood industry.
Fishmeal prices skyrocketed 80% as production shrank by 40% over the last year, Bloomberg reported. And, for once, a maritime supply chain issue has nothing to do with the Strait of Hormuz:
- Warming Pacific waters from an unusually strong El Niño weather event this year is upending some nutrient-rich ecosystems that sustain anchovies.
- That’s led to shrinking catches in Peru, Ecuador, and Chile, the anchovy superpowers that together produce nearly a third of the world’s fishmeal.
Lox becomes an even bigger splurge: Per Bloomberg, the fishmeal crunch will likely push up costs at fish farms (which account for over half of the global fish supply), leading to higher seafood prices at the supermarket.