Red porgy is sold in all four countries studied, however volumes are very small, too small to be monitored by any regular consumer panel. Greece seems to be the major market with a total of 7,000 tonnes a year, of which 1,400 tonnes of fresh red porgy, the remainder being sold frozen. The Italian market for red porgy is mostly in food-service, providing the fish is bigger than 2kg and especially when it can be used for a buffet meal.

Red porgy sales reflect the same geographic presence as Mediterranean fish in general, with higher volumes registered on the Spanish coasts and islands, and in the south of France, than in the more inland parts of the country.

Sales of red porgy are stable in most countries, but can show a rising trend wherever retailers put effort into selling it.

Origins

Domestic production of wild red porgy is minimal in all four countries, hence the high share of imported products, mostly from non-EU countries. Red porgy can come from two types of countries, depending on the level of price/quality required:

• Morocco and Tunisia: high price and quality
• other African countries (Senegal, Mauritania) and South America (Brazil, Argentina): cheaper prices - so the majority of supplies come from these countries.

Red porgy mostly goes through wholesalers/importers, rather than direct to the retailer, given the small volumes involved.

Size of individual fish

There is a wide range of sizes of red porgies available, the smallest weight mentioned to GIRA being 150g, on the Italian market. The most common size, however, seems to be between 300 and 700g, portions for one or two people. The biggest sizes (between 1kg and 5kg) are destined mostly to the food-service sector, and for the Christmas period in Spain. There are different trends per country: while both Italian and Greek markets are markets for larger sized red porgies, the Spanish and the French ones on the contrary are markets for medium sized fish.

Sales prices

There is a wide range of prices linked to the origin of the fish. The most expensive origins seem to be Mediterranean ones (Greece and Spain) as well as Morocco. Senegal, Oman and Argentina are much cheaper. Brazil and Mauritania supply frozen red porgies and can supply products at very low prices.

The following table indicates retail prices in 2003 in France, Greece, Italy and Spain - all values in EUR/Kg

The Mediterranean fish is more expensive but also considered by consumers to be of higher quality, while the Atlantic one is more consistent in its supplies and also cheaper (except for fish from Morocco, which is assimilated to Mediterranean in terms of quality). Fresh fish is also more expensive than frozen.

Prices indicated in Greece were much higher than the other countries. This can be partly explained by the fact that red porgy is a luxury item in Greece. The price for France* is an average for fish of all origins.