If you’ve been buying ahi all year, there shouldn’t be too much of a sticker shock this weekend as you prepare your New Year’s feast. The price of ahi is expected to stay reasonably stable through the New Year’s weekend, local fishmongers and grocers said.
Guy Tamashiro of Tamashiro’s Market on Thursday said the auction prices for bigeye tuna have been “very firm” the past few days, indicating a decent supply and steady pricing. Still, you might run into supply problems if your demands are particularly specific.
“We will run out (of fish) at certain prices, especially at the high end or the low end,” he said. “If you’re talking about buying something for $18.95 (per pound), we may run out of fish.”
That was the low end of his pricing Thursday, which he said could go “into the 20s” over the weekend.
With high-quality fish, which he would sell at around $40 a pound, the problem is that there are so few fish. “It’s lucky if there’s one fish a boat,” he said, and “there would be a lot of people fighting for that fish.”
In contrast, he knows that he’ll be pricing bluefin tuna at up to $42.95 a pound, “because I know what my cost is,” he said. Bluefin is an Atlantic fish.
This year the Hawaii- based fishery of bigeye tuna had its quota increased by nearly 85%, but that doesn’t mean the actual catch will be similarly large, he said. “Increasing quota is great, but they have to catch the fish,” he said.
He said his main emphasis is on selling quality fish. “We want everything we sell, they can make sashimi or poke and eat it raw, basically,” he said.
At Tanioka’s Seafood and Catering in Waipahu, poke prices will be $34.95 a pound, and sashimi will be $44.95 a pound, said general manager Justin Tanioka, who runs the longtime family business with his sister, Jasmine. The business is also known for selling high-quality, select fish.
“We’ve been at that price pretty much the whole year, even through the ups and downs,” Justin Tanioka said. “We’ve had some brutal months, but we just tried to keep it straight the whole year through.”
The supply of fish “looks pretty good right now,” he said, “but it just depends what kind of fish you’re looking for.”
“People who come in, they expect higher quality. No strings, light color, firm. It’s just an expectation we try to fulfill as a company.”
A quick look at the fish counter at the Kahala Mall Whole Foods Market revealed prices of $29.99 a pound for local bigeye tuna. Meanwhile, at the nearby Times Supermarket in Kahala, prices for ahi have been “in the midrange, not super high,” said Robin Hashimoto, the store’s seafood lead. “Right now it’s $19.99 — for fresh, auction ahi. It’s smaller fillets, not really big fillets.”
The supply of fish has been steady and even increased a bit after the summer, he said. The supply is “not super, super high, but decent,” he said.